Lancaster, California, USA, is the eighth-largest city in Los Angeles County an the 9th fastest growing city in the United States. Lancaster is located approximately 70 miles (112.5km) north (by road travel) of the city of Los Angeles in Southern California's Antelope Valley. It is separated from the Los Angeles Basin by the San Gabriel Mountain Range to the south and from Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley by the Tehachapi Mountain Range to the north. The City of Lancaster has grown from 37,000 residents at the time of incorporation in 1977, to an estimated 145,243 residents in 2008, and is the second-largest city on the California side of the Mojave Desert. As of the 2007 population estimate, the Palmdale / Lancaster, CA Urbanized Area (a US Census Bureau defined term) has a population of 446,342.