https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/population-exodus-2023-18566180.php
The number of people living in California fell below 39 million this year which is the lowest population count since 2015. The state’s population peak was in 2019 with about 39.5 million people but since then the population keeps decreasing. 338,000 people left California this year which is more than the people that left the year before. This year California lost more people to the rest of the country than it gained.
The article explains that some reasoning behind the population loss was that there wasn’t a large number of people born in the state. About only 303,000 people were born in California from July 2020 to July 2023. Another reason behind it was that the state’s number of deaths was about 111,000 people in the year 2022 to 2023. This means that a lot more people have died in California. Another reason behind this was that California because of the large increase in rent and other aspects of moving and housing California lost a lot of its residence to other states like New York and Washington. However it is said that throughout this time San Francisco’s population has grown in the past two years with a .3% increase. I wonder if the number of deaths have decreased because Covid hasn’t affected as many people as before.
This is especially interesting for us, as Californians. I hear in the news all the time about how people are fleeing CA and wonder to what extent it is true… as we know it’s ranked as one of the worst places to do business and of course it is relatively very expensive here. Some of what was in your follow up paragraph really belongs in the abstract, fyi. In the follow up paragraph you want to explain the environmental relevance. So that’s my question for you now- what is it? (And I imagine it won’t be too hard to make a connection.)
Thanks for you good reporting on this through the year, Kamron. Population can be one of the biggest issues leading to so many env. issues.
I think is interesting that population in California has been decreasing. It is expected because of the expensive rent and the low living standard. I’m also wondering if air pollutants have something to do with California’s deaths.