Palmdale’s Growth Ranked Second-Fastest in U.S.

While it may come as no surprise to the people of Palmdale--who have watched as housing tracts, mini-malls, schools and roads multiplied--their desert town is the second-fastest growing large city in the country so far this decade, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Monday.

Palmdale has already been recognized as the fastest-growing city in Los Angeles County and the state of California. But the new census data puts Palmdale’s population growth behind just one other municipality in the United States: Henderson, Nev., another desert town surrounded by little more than land and opportunity.

The new rankings, which include cities with populations exceeding 100,000, compare 1990 census figures with estimates for 1994. Every year, demographers pore over birth and death records, school enrollment figures and federal income-tax returns, among other documents, to update the decennial census.

The estimates show that between 1990 and 1994, Palmdale’s population grew 47.2%, from 70,262 to 103,423. Henderson, near Las Vegas, grew 57%.

Lancaster also cracked the top-10 list, with its population increasing 22.5%, from 97,300 to 119,186. That ranked Lancaster sixth nationwide.

The bustle in the Antelope Valley is a relatively isolated phenomenon. The population of the city of Los Angeles dropped 1.1%, to 3,448,613, between 1990 and 1994. Glendale lost population during the same four-year span, dropping 0.9%, from 180,038 to 178,481.

While the population of San Bernardino climbed 10.7%, reflecting the continuing growth of the Inland Empire, Los Angeles and Ventura county cities such as Long Beach, Norwalk, Pasadena, Santa Clarita, Thousand Oaks, Torrance, Simi Valley and West Covina experienced single-digit growth rates.

“California is a state of contrasts,” said census statistician Edwin Byerly. “Within the same state, you have an overall drop in population while some areas are growing rapidly and others are losing. . . . The Golden State is not as golden. You see the golden image in Palmdale, but there are harder times in places like Glendale.”

The Southwest is expected to remain the country’s population powerhouse through the ‘90s, as people continue to leave California and flee the East and South, said census geographer Donald C. Dahmann.

Palmdale’s double-digit growth rate comes as the desert city struggles with the rest of the region to rebound from cutbacks in the defense sector that once fueled much of the growth. But with just 17% of its 100 square miles developed, and many people fed up with the urban woes of Los Angeles, Palmdale still lures new residents.

“We’re the new frontier of the L.A. Basin,” said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford. “I’m not surprised we’re that high on the list.”

“There are positives and negatives to such growth,” said Gary Hill, Lancaster’s finance director. “Some people like a rural lifestyle and as more people move in, you lose some of that rural lifestyle. . . . But growth has also made us more of a self-contained community. Now I can go Christmas shopping right here without having to drive into the San Fernando Valley.”