Lancaster, California
29 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1915 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the North Antelope Valley census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93534. The Survey maps it on the Lancaster West quadrangle. 173,516 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,359 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1915 to 1981The same ground, surveyed 66 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


On record in Lancaster
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 2 records
Antelope Valley Indian Museumlisted 1987- Cedar Avenue Complexlisted 1993
Population over time
3 figuresLancaster grew from 26,012 to 173,516 between 1960 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1960 | 26,012 | |
| 2010 | 156,633 | |
| 2020 | 173,516 | +16,883 (+11%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 29 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1915 USGS Elizabeth Lake quadrangle1:125000
- 1915 USGS Elizabeth Lake quadrangle1:96000
- 1917 USGS Elizabeth Lake quadrangle1:125000, 6 printings
- 1930 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:24000
- 1933 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1949 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Lancaster West quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1959 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1966 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
- 1975 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1981 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
752 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 752 fires within 5 miles of Lancaster between 2005 and 2020, burning about 598 acres in total. None started naturally. 123 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 470 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 123 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 68 |
| Smoking | 57 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 17 |
| Debris and open burning | 16 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 8 September 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 7 September 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Los Angeles County Fire Department | not named |
| 7 September 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 6 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Los Angeles County Fire Department | not named |
| 6 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 6 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 6 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
9 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lancaster in 9 storm reports between 1998 and 2013: 5 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 flood, 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | - | California Highway Patrol reported downed power lines along 4th Street East and East Avenue L4 due to thunderstorm winds. Wind gusts were estimated to be around 60 MPH. |
| September 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | - | A trained spotter in the community of Lancaster reported a severe thunderstorm with winds in excess of 60 MPH. The thunderstorm winds knocked down trees and 5-inch diameter branches along the Antelope Valley Freeway between Avenue N and 50th Street East. |
| July 2006 | Flash Flood | Lancaster | - | California Highway Patrol reported flash flooding in the community of Lancaster from Avenue K to the Kern County border. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | - | A severe thunderstorm produced damaging winds in the community of Lancaster. Local law enforcement reported trees blown down at the intersection of Avenue J and 20th street due to thunderstorm winds. |
| May 1999 | Flash Flood | Lancaster | - | A strong thunderstorm produced flash flooding across eastern sections of the Antelope Valley. California Highway Patrol reported flooding around the intersection of Highway 138 and 165th Street. |
| August 1998 | Flood | Lancaster | - | Strong thunderstorms produced heavy rain and street flooding across the Antelope Valley. Several spotters in the city of Lancaster reported widespread street flooding. |
| August 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | - | Strong thunderstorms winds knocked down 10 power poles in the city of Lancaster. |
| July 2003 | Hail | Lancaster | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 1.7 miles | 29 | |
| Oban | 5.3 miles | 32 | |
| Quartz Hill | 5.6 miles | 30 | |
| Rancho Vista | 6.9 miles | 29 | |
| Desert View Highlands | 7.4 miles | 29 | |
| Del Sur | 8.1 miles | 31 | |
| Palmdale | 8.3 miles | 30 | |
| Antelope Acres | 9.0 miles | 30 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Lancaster | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q494711 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1652741. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.












