California’s population is still falling. Here’s what is leading to the decline
.jpg "FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 11, 2021, file photo, people overlook the skyline of Los Angeles. California is losing a U.S. House seat for the first time, dropping its delegation from 53 to 52 members. That’s according to Census Bureau population data released Monday, April 26, 2021, that determines how the nation’s 435 House seats are allocated. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)")
California’s population fell by 173,000 residents between July 2020 and July 2021, continuing a trend that began early in the coronavirus pandemic.
Fewer births, less immigration and COVID-19 contributed to the decline, according to demographers at the California Department of Finance. About 56,500 Californians died after contracting COVID-19 over during the 12-month period covered by the report.
The state also saw 53,000 fewer international students as a result of pandemic restrictions and declines in domestic in-migration, the report said.
The new population estimates come as California for the first time prepares to lose a seat in Congress because of its comparably slow growth. It remains the largest state with 39.4 million residents, but its congressional delegation is shrinking from 53 members to 52 next year through the once-a-decade rebalancing of political power that follows the census.
The Bay Area and Los Angeles County were hit particularly hard by population loss during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the report.
For the first time, all nine counties in the Bay Area reported a drop in population, ranging from 0.19% in Solano County to 1.77% in San Francisco. Some of their residents moved to inland counties in the Central Valley and the foothills.
Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano counties also saw a population decline for the first time since 2010.
For the Los Angeles area, the county’s population began to decline from 10.1 million in 2018, dropping to fewer than 10 million people for the first time since 2013 in 2021.
The state’s 10 largest counties are Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Alameda, Sacramento, Contra Costa and Fresno. Each of those counties has more than 1 million residents, making up 72% of the state’s total population.
However, only three of those counties saw a population increase between 2020 and 2021: Riverside, Sacramento and Fresno. Only Fresno and Riverside counties had positive population growth from net migration.
Rural Butte County continues to lose population, recording a 4.76% decline over the last year. The region has been hit hard by wildfires over the past several years.
“Butte County was still losing population after the Camp Fire in November 2018; however, the magnitude was much slower than the previous year,” according to the report.
The report said that the number of counties with negative population growth has increased each year across the last decade, and that 38 counties had population losses this year.
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 1:12 PM.