Immigration Turns California Population Loss Around

California reported seeing the largest increase in its population since 2020 due to immigration, after years of experiencing a decline.

The state’s Department of Finance (DOF) released a report showing that as of January 1, 2024, California’s population was at 39,128, 162 people, adding that this was a “positive population growth.”

This represented a 0.17 percent increase of roughly 67,000 additional people to the state.

“For the first time since 2020, California has once again experienced positive population growth in 2023; driven by decreased mortality and a rebound in legal foreign immigration,” the California DOF said in a statement.

Officials from the California DOF attributed the growth to legal immigration, a reduction in COVID-19 deaths, and natural increases in population growth.

“With immigration processing backlogs largely eliminated and deaths returning to long-term trends, a stable foundation for continued growth has returned,” the state DOF said. “As net domestic migration has receded to its lower rates of the 2010s, California is likely to experience slower but positive growth for the near future.”

The report also found that the state’s population increased in 31 counties, including the “Bay Area, Central Valley, and the Inland Empire,” according to a press release from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, California lost around 500,000 people, roughly half the state’s population.

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