California’s population decreased. Again. See which counties saw the biggest drop

California lost 117,552 residents last year, according to a new report from the California Department of Finance. As of Jan. 1 of this year, the state population was estimated at 39,185,605.

The population loss marks a 0.3% decline, down from the 0.59% decline over the nine-month period between the April 2020 Census date and the year’s end.

“As Baby Boomers age, and fertility declines among younger cohorts, the continuing slowdown in natural increase — births minus deaths — underlies the plateauing of the state’s population growth. The addition of COVID-19-related deaths, federal policies restricting immigration, and an increase in domestic out-migration further affected population totals. Overall growth was also affected by continuing federal delays in processing foreign migration: while last year saw positive immigration (43,300), the level was below the average annual rate of 140,000 before the pandemic,” according to a department statement.

According to the report, though population growth remained strong in the Central Valley and Inland Empire, the majority of counties in the state saw declines in population, including every coastal county except San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz counties (due in part to the return of college students to campus).

Only two counties recorded growth above 1%, including Yolo County (1.8% due to increases in college dorm housing) and San Benito County (1.1% due to housing gains).

Following closely behind were Modoc County (1%), Tuolumne County (0.9%) and Merced County (0.9%).

Out of the state’s 58 counties, 34 lost population, with the biggest percentage decreases coming in Plumas (-3.2%), Lassen (-2.8%), Butte (-2.4%), Del Norte (-1.4%), Napa (-1.0%), San Mateo (-0.9%), Marin (-0.9%), Shasta (-0.8%), San Francisco (-0.8%), and Ventura (-0.8%) counties.

The three most populous counties in the state all experienced population loss — Los Angeles County dropped by 0.7%, San Diego County dropped by 0.04% and Orange County dropped by 0.2%.

The report found that 361 cities lost population, while 118 gained and three had no change.

Of the 10 biggest cities in California, Bakersfield saw the largest population gain (0.7%), followed by San Diego (0.2%).

Sacramento saw a 0.1% decrease in population.

This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 10:25 AM.