Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, in the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area), approximately 11 miles east of Palm Springs. Other cites in the Coachella Valley are Cathedral City, Coachella, Desert Hot Springs, Indian Wells, Indio, La Quinta, Palm Springs, and Rancho Mirage.

The city was one of the state's fastest growing in the 1980s and 1990s, beginning with 11,801 residents in 1980, doubling to 23,650 in 1990, 35,000 in 1995, and nearly double its 1990 population by 2000.

As of the census of 2000, there were 41,155 people, 19,184 households, and 11,414 families residing in the city.

The global appeal of Palm Desert as the "place to be" for tourists has made it home to thousands of retired Canadians, Europeans, and Australians, but Palm Desert isn't entirely homogeneous: affluent African-Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans have moved to this formerly "all-white" city. There are many persons of Armenian, German, Italian, Polish, Swedish, and Jewish ancestry. Other ethnic groups that represent a sizable portion of residents are the Arabs, Cubans, former Yugoslavians, Iranians, Japanese, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and South Americans.

There were 19,184 households in Palm Desert, out of which 18.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.5% were married couples living together, 7.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.5% were non-families. 32.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.13 and the average family size was 2.67. The demographics of Palm Desert shows a rising population of children and young adults.

In the city the population was spread out with 17.3% under the age of 18, 6.2% from 18 to 24, 22.7% from 25 to 44, 26.3% from 45 to 64, and 27.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 48 years. For every 100 females there were 92.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.7 males. Palm Desert with the rest of the Coachella Valley has a large senior citizen (over age of 55) community, most of them have annual personal incomes exceeding well over $100,000.

The median income for a household in the city was $48,316, and the median income for a family was $58,183. Males had a median income of $42,257 versus $32,202 for females. The per capita income for the city was $33,463. About 5.9% of families and 9.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.1% of those under age 18 and 4.3% of those age 65 or over. Palm Desert is considered an upper-class community, having an above average median income compared both to California and the nation.

 

Information courtesy of wikipedia.org