Palmdale’s Growth Rate No. 2 in U.S. : Demographics: New census figures show the city’s population expanded 47.2% between ’90 and ’94. Lancaster is ranked sixth.

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

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 news comes as Palmdale struggles with the rest of the region to rebound from cutbacks in the defense sector that once fueled much of the growth. The bulldozers have been less active as the economy has leveled off, with home building down, foreclosures up and for-lease signs visible on more commercial sites.

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.”

The new ranking, which includes cities with populations exceeding 100,000, compares 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. Only Henderson, which is outside Las Vegas, grew faster, at 57%.

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

“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.”

The moving vans headed for the Antelope Valley have prompted a rush to build more schools, expand roads and develop without sacrificing the small-town feel.

Right now, for instance, construction is under way on a car-pool lane for the Antelope Valley Freeway from Santa Clarita to Palmdale, a result of additional traffic. And a widening project on the Pearblossom Highway is also in the works, to better shuttle cars east and west.

The bustle in Palmdale and Lancaster is a somewhat isolated phenomenon. Glendale, for instance, lost population during the same four-year span, dropping 0.9% from 180,038 to 178,481. Ontario, Pasadena, Santa Clarita, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley are all experiencing more moderate, single-digit growth rates. The population of the city of Los Angeles, meanwhile, dropped 1.1% to 3,448,613.

“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.

Most of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas are along the U.S.-Mexico border, Dahmann said. Immigration, coupled with what he called “California spillover,” have contributed to growth in such areas as Laredo and McAllen, Tex., and Yuma, Ariz., which are the nation’s fastest-growing areas after Las Vegas.

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Growth Areas

Following are the 10 fastest-growing U.S. cities in the United States:

Rate of population growth in 1994

HENDERSON, Nev.: 57.0%

PALMDALE, Calif.: 47.2%

CHANDLER, Ariz.: 32.7%

LAS VEGAS, Nev.: 27.0%

PLANO, Tex.: 23.1%

LANCASTER, Calif.: 22.5%

LAREDO, Tex.: 22.0%

CHESAPEAKE, Va.: 18.8%

FONTANA, Calif.: 18.5%

NAPERVILLE, Ill.: 17.9%

Source: Census Bureau