Flight to L.A.'s suburbs is still in vogue; Palmdale proves to be county's fastest growing city.

Lured by available land, safer streets and aerospace-manufacturing work, Southlanders and others continue to flock to cities on Los Angeles' northern periphery in the greatest numbers, according to this week's List of the county's fastest growing municipalities.

The city of Palmdale, which relies on taxes from military contractors and residential property for much of its $70 million budget, experienced the biggest surge in citizenry from 1990 to 1991 -- a 26.2 percent gain that pushes its population to the 78,000 mark.

Though their growth rate was less than one-third of Palmdale, the northern cities of Santa Clarita, Lancaster and Westlake Village also outpaced others in welcoming new residents. Santa Clarita's population, for example, grew by about 7,000 to 118,000, making it the county's third-fastest growing incorporated city. Close behind was Lancaster, with a 6.5 percent population increase.

Median household income in those four, mostly Anglo communities was higher than the 1989 state average of $35,798, according to recently released U.S. Census data. Palmdale's median household income was $41,974 compared to $75,034 in Westlake Village. Palmdale, in particular, has grown because its open land has been gobbled up by homebuilders and manufacturers, like Lockheed and Northrop corporations, hungry for space to house manufacturing and research plants.

But according to the California Department of Finance's Demographic Research Unit, which supplied the information for The List, migration and growth is not confined just to the northern reaches -- a trend that began early last decade when many Americans fled dense urban areas for the suburbs and better living conditions.

Gardena, a middle-class municipality southwest of the city of Los Angeles, was the No. 6 fastest growing community with 52,300 citizens and has an economy driven by commercial and manufacturing work. La Mirada, Gardena's easterly neighbor, came in at No. 7 with a 4.7 percent growth rate and 42,150 citizens. Both of those cities lean heavily on retail and light manufacturing for revenues.

Rounding out the top 10 was Long Beach, the county's second most populous city with 439,000 citizens and a 2.9 percent growth rate from 1990 to 1991.

Conspicuous by its absence from the top 25 List was Los Angeles. The county's largest city -- America's second biggest metropolis -- welcomed only about 60,000 to a population that stood at 3.54 million at the end of last year.

The heavily industrial City of Industry was the county's second-fastest growing municipality. By adding only 80 new citizens to a resident population that expanded to 700 at the end of 1990, its growth rate registered at 12.9 percent.