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DEMOGRAPHICS / POPULATION Santa Clarita is the fourth largest city in Los Angeles County with a population of 177,045 in January 2008. Santa Clarita is the 24th largest city in the State of California and one of the 150 biggest cities in the U.S. In Los Angeles County, only Los Angeles with a population of 4.0 million, Long Beach with less than 493,000, and Glendale with slightly over 207,000 were larger than Santa Clarita. Consequently, Santa Clarita plays an important role in the County based on its size.
Over the past ten years, Santa Clarita’s population size has continued to steadily increase. During this time period, the population growth was the result of new housing construction in the City as well as annexations of surrounding areas into the city limits. Santa Clarita’s population continues on an upward trend, while other comparison cities including Burbank, Glendale, Lancaster, Palmdale, and Pasadena appear to have slowed down since 2006.
In fact, Santa Clarita’s population grew by 17.1% from 2000 to 2008 and was almost twice the growth experience in all of Los Angeles County. Only the communities of Lancaster and Palmdale in the Antelope Valley grew more than Santa Clarita.
By the year 2010, the population is forecasted to exceed 181,000. Growth is forecasted to continue over the coming decades to 226,000 by the year 2030.
Santa Clarita’s population is well-educated with 61% of adults at least 25 years of age having some college or higher. People in the City are more educated when compared to the Los Angeles County average in which only 43% have attained some college or higher. This indicates a greater likelihood for professionals and technical employees residing in the City.
Located either in or near the City of Santa Clarita are four well-known colleges whose total enrollment exceeds 54,000 students. In Santa Clarita are College of the Canyons, the fastest growing community college within California, along with California Institute of the Arts and The Master’s College which are both renowned in their areas of specialty. Located near Santa Clarita is California State University, Northridge.
Source: Individual school web sites, September 2008
Another important indicator of the quality of life in Santa Clarita is test scores or Academic Performance Index (API) averages for each of the school districts serving Santa Clarita. Performance increased among every school district in 2008 compared to 2007. The district with the highest API is Newhall School District with an API in 2008 of 882. The API for the William S. Hart Union High School District which encompasses junior and senior high schools rose to 804 in 2008 from 791 in the previous school year.
Each of the Santa Clarita based school districts attained higher APIs in 2008 than the Los Angeles Unified School District or other districts of cities nearby.
In the Santa Clarita area, 38 schools comprise the elementary school districts and 19 junior high and high schools are part of the William S. Hart Union High School District. Among these five districts are 39 California Distinguished Schools and 11 National Blue Ribbon Schools. This further demonstrates the superior quality of education available to families with children under the age of 18 in Santa Clarita.
Sources: California Department of Education, U. S. Department of Education
Santa Clarita’s population is relatively young in age. Approximately 29% are between the ages of 25 and 44 and 25% are school age between the ages of 5 and 19.
In general, the City’s population is not as diverse as the County’s population. Close to 70% of Santa Clarita’s population describes itself as White. However, due to the large influx of immigrants from a variety of countries as well as a large increase in multi-racial families more than 20% of the population describes itself as either “Other” or more than two races.
More than one-fourth or 27% of Santa Clarita’s population is Hispanic compared to 47% of Los Angeles County and
Santa Clarita’s Asian population is quite diverse. In fact, 27% of the City’s Asian population is Filipino followed by 24% who are Korean. An additional 16% are Asian Indian and 11% are Chinese.
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Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2005 American Community Survey
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2005 American Community Survey
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