Santa Clarita (; Spanish for “Little St. Clare”) is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, the 17th-largest in California, and the 99th-largest city in the United States. It is located not quite 30 miles (48 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles, and occupies 70.75 square miles (183.2 km) of home in the Santa Clarita Valley, along the Santa Clara River. It is a eternal example of a U.S. edge city, satellite city, or boomburb.

Human agreement of the Santa Clarita Valley dates back up to the introduction of the Chumash people, who were displaced by the Tataviam circa 450 AD. After Spanish colonists arrived in Alta California, the Rancho San Francisco was established, covering much of the Santa Clarita Valley. Henry Mayo Newhall purchased the Rancho San Francisco in 1875 and established the towns of Saugus and Newhall. The Newhall Land and Farming Company played a major role in the city’s development. In December 1987, the city of Santa Clarita was incorporated, encompassing the communities of Canyon Country, Newhall, Saugus, and Valencia. The four communities sustain separate identities, and residents commonly tackle to one of them afterward asked where they are from. Santa Clarita is bounded on the west by the Golden State Freeway (I-5). The Antelope Valley Freeway (CA-14) runs northeast–southwest forming portion of the city’s deviant east boundary. The two freeways meet at Newhall Pass, near the city’s southernmost point.

Santa Clarita is home to three institutions of higher education: California Institute of the Arts, an internationally renowned art university; The Master’s University, a Christian radical arts university; and College of the Canyons, a community college. Companies headquartered in or close the city append Princess Cruises, Sunkist, Remo, and the Newhall Land and Farming Company. The unincorporated communities of Castaic and Stevenson Ranch, located to the north and west of the Santa Clarita city limits, respectively, are contiguously associated considering the city. Six Flags Magic Mountain, though commonly thought to perform the Valencia portion of Santa Clarita, is plus west of Interstate 5 and outside of the Santa Clarita city limits.

The Santa Clara River was named by Spanish explorers for Saint Clare of Assisi. The valley and the concurrence later became known as “little Santa Clara” (“Santa Clarita” in the Spanish diminutive) to distinguish it from the Northern Californian city of Santa Clara and its accompanying Mission Santa Clara. The Santa Clarita Valley similarly differentiates itself from the Santa Clara Valley in Northern California. The region was not widely referred to as Santa Clarita until the 1950s; before this, it was unofficially referred to as the “Newhall–Saugus area” and the “Bonelli tract,” after a relatives which owned land in the valley.