Glendale is a city located in Maricopa County Arizona. With a 2020 population of 252,645, it is the 6th largest city in Arizona and the 92nd largest city in the United States. Glendale is currently growing at a rate of 0.86% annually and its population has increased by 0.94% since the most recent census, which recorded a population of 250,290 in 2020. Spanning over 62 miles, Glendale has a population density of 4,102 people per square mile.
The average household income in Glendale is $72,113 with a poverty rate of 17.22%. The median rental costs in recent years comes to $1,051 per month, and the median house value is $231,200. The median age in Glendale is 34.2 years, 33 years for males, and 35.4 years for females.
According to the 2010 United States Census information, the racial makeup of Glendale was 75.54% white, 6% black, 1.7% Native American, 3.9% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 16.95% from other races, and 40% from two or more races. Approximately 35.5% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
The most-spoken languages in Glendale are English and Spanish. 67.22% of Glendale residents speak only English and 32.78% of residents speak other languages. The most common non-English language in Glendale is Spanish, which is spoken by 24.57% of the population.
Glendale Population Growth
In 1910, Glendale had a population of 1,000 people. One hundred years later, Glendale had a population of 226,721. Glendale has had a consistently increasing population since its settlement and has had no periods of a decreasing population.
Glendale’s largest decade of growth was from 1970 to 1980, when the population increased by 168.2% from 36,228 to 97,172. The decade with the smallest amount of growth was 2000 to 2010 when the population increased by 3.6%. From 2010 to 2018, the population is estimated to have grown by 10.6% or about 1.325% per year.
In the late 1800s, William John Murphy built a 40-mile-long canal from Granite Reef to New River for the Arizona Canal Company to bring water to the desert land that is now known as Glendale, Arizona. In 1887, Murphy formed the Arizona Improvement Company to sell the land and water rights south of the canal, the land he referred to as “Glendale.” An 18-mile-long road was built from Phoenix to Peoria to help improve access to Glendale and make it more attractive to settlers.
With the help of a man named Burgess Hadsell, Murphy brought 70 Brethren and River Brethren families to Glendale to form a temperance colony in 1891. The town’s ban on alcoholic beverages continued to attract settlers. The construction of a railroad allowed the town to continue to grow and transport goods and building materials.
The Beet Sugar Factory, built in 1906, played an important role in the growth of Glendale by increasing the number of immigrant and migrant settlers in the city, even though it only lasted until 1913.
On June 18, 1910, Glendale was incorporated and A.W. Bennet becomes the first mayor.
During the 1920s, The Glendale Herald was established and the Chamber of Commerce was founded. In 1930, Glendale became one of the nation’s top produce shippers and the Town of Glendale became the City of Glendale. In 1948, Glendale became the only city in the state of Arizona to have all of its streets paved.
Between 1950 and 2000, Glendale made significant developments, such as opening Glendale Community College and Arizona State University West and building the new Glendale Municipal Airport. In 1981, Sperry (now Honeywell) built Glendale’s first aerospace facility. The Catlin Court Historic Shops District and Arrowhead Towne Center mall both opened in the early 1990s.
In 2006, Glendale’s multi-purpose football stadium, State Farm Stadium, was built. The Superbowl was hosted at State Farm Stadium in 2008 and 2015.
