Lincoln is a city in Placer County, California, United States, part of the Sacramento metropolitan area. Located north of Roseville in an area of rapid suburban development, it grew 282 percent between 2000 and .
Lincoln is part of the Sacramento-Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
The original townsite was surveyed and laid out in 1859 by Theodore Judah along the proposed line of the California Central Railroad. The name Lincoln was conferred in honor of Charles Lincoln Wilson, one of the organizers, who was a fundraiser and a management contractor of the California Central Railroad (CCRR). The CCRR was planned as a rail link between the cities of Marysville and Sacramento via a connection to the Sacramento Valley Railroad in Folsom. Grading from Folsom to Marysville commenced in 1858 and was completed up to Grider's Ranch (Roseville) by 1859.
thumb|left|November 1859 advertisement announcing the founding sale of town lots by Charles Lincoln Wilson
At Auburn Ravine, where the line makes an elbow and turns northward toward Marysville, a new railway town Lincoln was located by Judah with town lots on sale from Wilson. At an auction in Sacramento on November 23, 1859, over $4,000 was raised from the sales of lots in Lincoln, ranging from $20 to $400 for each lot. With the grading on the first division of the road from Folsom completed to Lincoln, track laying began at Folsom on December 30, 1859. With the help of the Chinese laborers, the company was able to complete the railroad to Lincoln on October 14, 1861. The completion of the railroad "changed the appearance of the locality, and breathed into the town the breath of life", birthing possibly the first platted railroad town in California.
At this point, due to a lack of funds, further construction on the California Central was temporarily halted and Lincoln experienced a small-scale boom as the northern terminus of this new railroad. Within a few years, however, more investors were found and the line was extended to Wheatland, in Yuba County, bringing an end to this early stage of Lincoln's development.
When most of its population and business moved on with the railroad, the town settled into a lull until the early 1870s, when rich clay deposits of the Ione Formation were discovered nearby. This led to the establishment of Gladding, McBean & Co., the pottery for which Lincoln is now famous, ushering in a new era of prosperity and growth.
Lincoln remained a sleepy town until the mid-1990s, when the suburbs of Sacramento started expanding beyond nearby Roseville. The city is now experiencing a new period of growth. 2010 census, the population was 42,819, for a growth rate of 282 percent since 2000, making Lincoln the fastest-growing city in the United States over that decade.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which , or 0.18 percent, is water.
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2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Lincoln had a population of 49,757. The population density was .
The census reported that 99.7% of the population lived in households, 0.1% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0.2% were institutionalized. 98.7% of residents lived in urban areas, while 1.3% lived in rural areas.
There were 18,922 households, of which 30.4% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 60.1% were married-couple households, 4.7% were cohabiting couple households, 10.8% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 24.4% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. 23.1% of households were made up of individuals, and 17.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.62. There were 13,717 families (72.5% of all households).
The median household income in 2023 was $108,108, and the per capita income was $52,006. About 6.2% of families and 7.7% of the population were below the poverty line.
2010 census
2010 census Lincoln had a population of 42,819. The population density was . The racial makeup of Lincoln was 34,087 (79.6%) White, 629 (1.5%) African American, 399 (0.9%) Native American, 2,663 (6.2%) Asian, 115 (0.3%) Pacific Islander, 3,125 (7.3%) from other races, and 1,801 (4.2%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7,597 persons (17.7%).
The census reported that 42,704 people (99.7% of the population) lived in households, 30 (0.1%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 85 (0.2%) were institutionalized.
There were 16,479 households, 5,190 (31.5%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 10,365 (62.9%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 1,202 (7.3%) had a female householder with no husband present, 586 (3.6%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 775 (4.7%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 110 (0.7%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 3,518 households (21.3%) were one person and 2,128 (12.9%) had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.59. There were 12,153 families (73.7% of households); the average family size was 3.01.
The age distribution was 10,382 people (24.2%) under the age of 18, 2,360 people (5.5%) aged 18 to 24, 10,862 people (25.4%) aged 25 to 44, 9,166 people (21.4%) aged 45 to 64, and 10,049 people (23.5%) who were 65 or older. The median age was 40.5 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.5 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 89.6 males.
There were 17,457 housing units at an average density of 867.2 per square mile, of the occupied units 13,115 (79.6%) were owner-occupied and 3,364 (20.4%) were rented. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.5%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.7%. 32,473 people (75.8% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 10,231 people (23.9%) lived in rental housing units.