California sees large population increase in 2024 -- nearly returning to pre-pandemic level

Harriet Blair Rowan, The Mercury News on Dec 19, 2024

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California’s population grew this year by nearly a quarter of a million residents, bouncing back close to the record-high population levels the Golden State had reached before the pandemic, but growing more slowly than the country as a whole and other large states in the South, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday.

“As the nation’s population surpasses 340 million, this is the fastest annual population growth the nation has seen since 2001,” the U.S. Census Bureau wrote in a statement Thursday. “The growth was primarily driven by rising net international migration.”

After consistent population growth through the 2010’s, California’s population peaked at 39,556,000, according to the 2020 decennial census, before losing nearly 1% of its population by July 1, 2021, in the midst of pandemic restrictions.

Between 2020 and 2022, the California exodus has had significant impacts on the state. In 2021 the state lost one of our congressional representatives, going from 53 to 52 seats in the House of Representatives, and the state had one fewer electoral college votes in 2024 than in 2020. Critics of the state’s leadership point to crime rates, high taxes, and high property costs as reasons for residents fleeing to other less regulated states, like Texas and Florida.

The Census Bureau’s Vintage 2024 population estimates show California’s population on July 1, 2024 was 39,431,000, an increase of 233,000 from the year before, and just 125,000 short of the 2020 high point.

California had the third most new residents, with the population growing by about 0.59%. Florida and Texas both saw more new residents, and top the list of states with the largest increases by raw numbers.

The District of Columbia had the largest percent increase, with 2.2% more residents in 2024. Following Florida and Texas, Utah and South Carolina round out the list of places with the 5 largest percent increases in their population, all with at least 1.7% more residents than 2023.

Overall, the population of the whole country grew by about 0.9%, slightly outpacing California’s growth.

Between the decennial census population counts, the agency releases estimates for July 1 of each year, using natural population change, like births and deaths, and then factoring in migration to calculate the estimates. And each year the estimates for each year since the most recent decennial census are revised based on new information.

While last year’s update showed that 2023 was another year with slight population decreases in California, this year’s update revised the 2023 population, showing a slight increase from the 2022 estimate, suggesting the exodus reversed from 2022 to 2023.