Californians are still moving away from the state in large numbers, but the state has reversed its population decline, according to the latest US Census Bureau figures. The state, which lost population during the pandemic, gained 232,570 people from July 1, 2023, to July 1, 2024, the Los Angeles Times reports. Its population is now 39,431,263—still the highest in the nation, but 124,000 below the peak it reached in 2020.
- International migration was the main driver of California's population growth. Some 361,057 people from other countries moved to the state, behind only Florida at 411,032, according to the Census Bureau. Births outnumbered deaths by 110,466.
- Without international migration, California's population would have continued to shrink. It had a net loss of 239,575 people to domestic migration, the most of any state. Texas, one of many states growing at a faster rate than California, had 85,267 more people move to the state than move out of it.
- California's Department of Finance also found that the state's population is growing, but it put the figure at just 49,000, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
- High property prices are often cited as a reason for leaving California, and most of the population growth was in relatively affordable areas like the Central Valley and the Inland Empire, the Chronicle reports. The population dropped in San Francisco, which has some of the country's most expensive real estate.
(The Census Bureau said the country's population
has risen above 340 million, but three states have lost population.)