Palm Desert is a city in the Coachella Valley region of Riverside County, California.

Palm Desert is in the ancestral homeland of the Cahuilla people, who are nowadays organized as a division of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians.

Most of the pre-World War II residents of Palm Desert were Cahuilla farmers of the now extinct San Cayetano tribe, although a few members of the Montoya family of Cahuilla and Spanish descent were prominent civic leaders after city development.

The first large scale residential development began in 1943 in connection with General George S. Patton's Desert Training Center of the U.S. Army built in the area for the Second World War.

That site was later developed into "El Paseo", an upscale shopping district modeling after Rodeo Drive.

In 1948, the Palm Desert Corporation began to develop real estate, and in 1951 the area was given its present name.

In 1946, the Henderson brothers began developing the Shadow Mountain Club in south Palm Desert.

Completed in 1948, the club was the first of many large-scale resorts in Palm Desert, featuring a 360,000 gallon pool, golf course, tennis courts, hotel, restaurant, and entertainment amenities for visiting families.

Its winters are among the warmest in the western U.S. Palm Desert has a hot desert climate: its average annual high temperature is 88 °F (31 °C) and average annual low is 64 °F (18 °C), but summer highs above 108 °F (42 °C) are common and sometimes exceed 120 °F (49 °C), while summer night lows often stay above 82 °F (28 °C).

Under 3 inches (76 mm) of annual precipitation is average, with over 348 days of sunshine per year.

[7] The surrounding mountains create a thermal belt[9] in the southern foothills of Palm Desert, namely Cahuilla Hills and Bighorn, leading to a micro-climate with significantly warmer night-time temperatures during the winter months.

The University of California maintains weather stations located in this thermal belt as part of their ecological project in the Philip L. Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center.

There were 37,073 housing units at an average density of 1,372.4 per square mile (529.9/km2), of which 15,171 (65.6%) were owner-occupied, and 7,946 (34.4%) were occupied by renters.

According to the 2010 United States Census, Palm Desert had a median household income of $53,456, with 9.2% of the population living below the federal poverty line.

The demographics of Palm Desert shows a rising population of children and young adults.

According to the City's 2020 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,[15] the top employers in the city are: Palm Desert is the home of the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, a combination zoo and botanical garden featuring over 500 animals from 150 species over 80 acres.

The location also hosts an extensive collection of desert plants with a state-of-the-art animal hospital.

The city's first golf course and tennis club was Shadow Mountain in 1948, followed by Marrakesh in 1954, the Palm Desert Greens mobile home park golf course in 1961, and the Palm Desert Country Club in 1962.

The city has over 30 hotels and 5,000 rooms, and lodging and hospitality is a major portion of the local tourist-based economy.

Sun City Palm Desert was developed by Del E. Webb Corp. (acquired by Pulte Homes in 2001).

The Palm Desert Campus is a complete university with over 40 undergraduate, graduate, doctorate, and credential programs offered as the only full-service public school of higher education in the Coachella Valley.

The four elementary schools in the city are: George Washington Charter, Abraham Lincoln, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

The Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City is maintained by the Palm Springs Cemetery District.

The city is home to the Palm Desert Scene, a musical genre that has been heavily influential internationally since the early 1990s.