Palmdale is a city in the far north of Los Angeles County in the Antelope Valley region of the Mojave Desert in Southern California.
The San Gabriel Mountains separate Palmdale from the city of Los Angeles to the south. On August 24, 1962, Palmdale became the first community in the Antelope Valley to incorporate. Forty-seven years later, in November 2009, voters approved making it a charter city. Palmdale's population was 152,750 at the 2010 census, up from 116,670 at the 2000 census. Palmdale is the 34th most populous city in California. Together with its immediate northern neighbor, the city of Lancaster, the Palmdale/Lancaster urban area had an estimated population of 513,547 as of 2013. Populated by different cultures for an estimated 11,000 years, the Antelope Valley was a trade route for Native Americans traveling from Arizona and New Mexico to California's coast. "Palmenthal", the first European settlement within the limits of Palmdale, was established as a village on April 20, 1886, by westward Lutheran travelers from the American Midwest, mostly of German and Swiss descent.