Lancaster, California
Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 173,516, making Lancaster the 158th-most populous city in the United States and the 30th most populous in California. Lancaster is a twin city with its southern neighbor Palmdale; together, they are the principal cities within the Antelope Valley region.
Lancaster is located approximately north of downtown Los Angeles and is near the Kern County line. It is separated from the Los Angeles Basin by the San Gabriel Mountains to the south and from Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley by the Tehachapi Mountains to the north. The population of Lancaster has grown from 37,000 at the time of its incorporation in 1977 to over 173,000 as of 2020.
History
, the area where Lancaster is now located, was home to the Paiute tribe at the time of first contact with Europeans. The Antelope Valley's central geography then served as the hub of a trade route for tribes trading between the California coast, the Central Valley, the Great Basin, and the pueblos of Arizona.After statehood, the Antelope Valley again served as a geographic shortcut but for the Stockton-Los Angeles Road and the Butterfield Overland Mail, which had two nearby stops in Mud Spring and Neenach in the 1850s. However, Lancaster's origins as a settlement start with the Southern Pacific Railroad, which replaced the stage coach routes. The railroad built a station house, locomotive watering facility, section gang housing, and railroad track in the location of the town's current center. In 1876 the Southern Pacific completed the line through the Antelope Valley, linking San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Lancaster began as a Scottish settlement. The origin of Lancaster's name is unclear, attributed variously to the surname of a railroad station clerk, the moniker given by railroad officials, or the former Pennsylvania home of unknown settlers. Train service brought passengers through the water-stop-turned-community, which, with the help of promotional literature, attracted new settlers. The person credited with formally developing the town is Moses Langley Wicks, who in 1884 bought property from the railroad for $2.50 per acre, mapped out a town with streets and lots, and by September was advertising 160-acre tracts of land for $6 an acre. The following year, the Lancaster News started publication, making it the first weekly newspaper in the Antelope Valley. By 1890, Lancaster was bustling and booming, and thanks to adequate rainfall, farmers planted and sold thousands of acres of wheat and barley.
The town was devastated by the decade-long drought that began in 1894, killing businesses and driving cattle north, though fortunes improved somewhat in the late-1890s following the nearby discoveries of gold and borax. The Tropico Gold Mine in Rosamond was briefly the largest goldmine in Southern California before its 1956 closure. The Pacific Coast Borax Company mine would later become the world's largest borax mine, producing nearly half of the world's supply of borates. The 1912 completion of Antelope Valley High School allowed students from the growing region to study locally instead of moving to distant cities, hosting the state's first high school dormitory system.
Lancaster State Prison opened in 1993 and before that Los Angeles County hosted no prisons but accounted for forty percent of California's state-prison inmates. "Most of Lancaster's civic leaders and residents" opposed the building of the prison, and four inmates escaped from LAC in its first year of operation. Nevertheless, by 2000 a proposal to increase the proportion of maximum-security inmates received little criticism.
In 2005, Hyundai Motor Co. announced the grand opening of a 4,300-acre, $60 million "Proving Ground", a state-of-the-art testing facility for cars and sports utility vehicles in nearby California City.
In 2010, the city opened The BLVD, a one-mile revitalized stretch of Lancaster Boulevard between 10th Street West and Sierra Highway, with additional construction on Elm Avenue and Fig Avenue continuing for the next few months.
City leaders set the goal of becoming the nation's first Net-Zero municipality, wherein the city would produce more clean energy than it consumes. Much of the city's infrastructure including City Hall, local schools, and the minor league baseball stadium are solar-powered. In March 2013, Lancaster became the first city in the USA to require solar panels on all new homes in an effort to make the community more carbon neutral. The rule took effect in January 2014.
War Eagle Field / Mira Loma
is a former airfield located in the Mojave Desert, about west of central Lancaster.In 1944, the flight school changed its name to Mira Loma Flight Academy. The airfield inactivated on October 1, 1945, and was declared surplus in 1946. Responsibility for it was given to the War Assets Administration. The land was then bought by Los Angeles County. The airfield was converted to the Mira Loma Detention Center. In 2012, Los Angeles County closed the detention center. Los Angeles County is currently collaborating with the City of Lancaster, the faith-based community, and the non-profit community to convert the facility into a winter shelter.
Geography
Climate
Lancaster has a semi-arid climate, bordering on an arid climate. The area within Lancaster is covered by shrublands, forests, grasslands, lakes and rivers, and croplands. Lancaster and its immediate surroundings are part of USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 8b. Winters are cool to mild, with daily normal minimum temperatures at or just below freezing from late November until late January; summers are hot and nearly rainless. On average, annually there are 68 mornings with a minimum at or below freezing, and afternoons with a maximum at or above. With a normal annual precipitation of, clear days are the norm even in winter, when surrounding mountain ranges are blanketed with snow. Thunderstorms are infrequent but do occur in July through September. Spring wildflowers are abundant, including Lupines, the California Poppy, Fiddlenecks, purple owl's clover, California Goldfields, Creamcups, and Coreopsis. Summer nights are cool and the Pacific tree frog or barn owl can be heard. Average annual snowfall is around.The record high temperature in Lancaster was on June 30, 2013. The record low temperature was on December 24, 1984. The wettest "rain year" was from July 1992 to June 1993 with and the driest from July 2012 to June 2013 with. The most precipitation in one month was in January 1993. The most precipitation in one twenty-four-hour period was on March 1, 1983. In January 1979, of snow fell in Lancaster.
Demographics
| Race / Ethnicity | Pop 2000 | Pop 2010 | % 2000 | % 2010 | ||
| White alone | 62,256 | 53,576 | 42,321 | 52.44% | 34.20% | 24.39% |
| Black or African American alone | 18,548 | 30,859 | 35,497 | 15.62% | 19.70% | 20.46% |
| Native American or Alaska Native alone | 706 | 663 | 704 | 0.59% | 0.42% | 0.41% |
| Asian alone | 4,348 | 6,474 | 7,699 | 3.66% | 4.13% | 4.44% |
| Pacific Islander alone | 231 | 295 | 250 | 0.19% | 0.19% | 0.14% |
| Other Race alone | 426 | 621 | 1,299 | 0.36% | 0.40% | 0.75% |
| Mixed race or Multiracial | 3,559 | 4,549 | 7,408 | 3.00% | 2.90% | 4.27% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 28,644 | 59,596 | 78,338 | 24.13% | 38.05% | 45.15% |
| Total | 118,718 | 156,633 | 173,516 | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% |
2020
The 2020 United States census reported that Lancaster had a population of 173,516. The population density was. The racial makeup of Lancaster was 32.6% White, 21.3% African American, 1.7% Native American, 4.7% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 23.8% from other races, and 15.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 45.1% of the population.The census reported that 97.1% of the population lived in households, 0.8% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 2.2% were institutionalized.
There were 53,280 households, out of which 41.4% included children under the age of 18, 43.1% were married-couple households, 7.4% were cohabiting couple households, 31.1% had a female householder with no partner present, and 18.4% had a male householder with no partner present. 20.7% of households were one person, and 7.5% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 3.16. There were 39,310 families.
The age distribution was 27.1% under the age of 18, 10.3% aged 18 to 24, 27.9% aged 25 to 44, 23.5% aged 45 to 64, and 11.2% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 33.2years. For every 100 females, there were 97.2 males.
There were 55,137 housing units at an average density of, of which 53,280 were occupied. Of these, 58.8% were owner-occupied, and 41.2% were occupied by renters.
In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that the median household income was $76,083, and the per capita income was $29,766. About 12.3% of families and 15.5% of the population were below the poverty line.
2010
The 2010 United States census reported that Lancaster had a population of 156,633. The population density was. The racial makeup of Lancaster was 77,734 White, 32,083 African American, 1,519 Native American, 6,810 Asian, 362 Pacific Islander, 29,728 from other races, and 8,397 from two or more races. There were 59,556 people of Hispanic or Latino ancestry, of any race.The Census reported that 148,374 people lived in households, 1,484 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 6,775 were institution
There were 46,992 households, out of which 22,021 had children under the age of 18 living in them, 22,108 were opposite-sex married couples living together, 9,481 had a female householder with no husband present, 3,389 had a male householder with no wife present. There were 3,374 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 376 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 9,239 households were made up of individuals, and 3,060 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.16. There were 34,978 families ; the average family size was 3.62.
The population was spread out, with 47,160 people under the age of 18, 18,607 people aged 18 to 24, 42,575 people aged 25 to 44, 35,632 people aged 45 to 64, and 12,659 people who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30.4 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.5 males.
There were 51,835 housing units at an average density of, of which 28,366 were owner-occupied, and 18,626 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 3.8%; the rental vacancy rate was 9.4%. 90,064 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 58,310 people lived in rental housing units.
According to the 2010 United States Census, Lancaster had a median household income of $50,193, with 21.5% of the population living below the federal poverty line.
As of 2000, Mexican and German are the most common ancestries in the city. Mexico and the Philippines are the most common foreign places of birth in Lancaster.
German, English, Irish, Italian and French are the top ancestries. Spanish and Tagalog are the most common spoken non-English languages.