The Camp Fire led to more than 10,000 residents leaving Butte County in the last year

The devastating Camp Fire that tore through Butte County in November 2018 led to an exodus of more than 10,400 residents in the last year, the latest state figures show.

As thousands affected by the most destructive wildfire in state history left Butte County between July 2018 and July 2019, some relocated to other cities in the county outside of the affected cities of Paradise, Magalia and Concow. In the immediate aftermath of the Camp Fire, the city of Chico alone swelled by about 19,000.

But many clearly moved to surrounding counties, according to data released by the state Department of Finance last week.

Six nearby counties — Colusa, Glenn, Plumas, Sutter, Tehama, and Yuba — showed significant population increases, according to the department, and four of those counties were among the top ten counties across California with the highest population growth rates.

The Camp Fire, which killed 86 people and displaced an estimated 35,700 people, destroyed more than 14,600 homes, according to the department.

That led to Butte County having the lowest population growth rate in California in the last year, a 4.6 percent decrease.

The county now has about 217,000 residents, down from more than 227,300 in July 2018. There were also 142 more deaths than births in the county in the last year, officials said.

By comparison, southern neighbor Sutter County had the highest growth rate in the state last year, at a little over 2.2 percent. That includes more than 1,360 new residents who moved into the county domestically, most of them from Butte County, according to the department.

Overall, California’s population grew by about 141,300 people to a total of 39.96 million. But the last year marks the lowest growth rate for the state since 1900, now down to about 0.35 percent.

This story was originally published December 26, 2019 at 2:12 PM.