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California population growth slows

Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Friday, December 18, 2009
Comments 179

( 12-18 ) 04:00 PST Sacramento - --

California's population growth slowed over the past year as tens of thousands of residents moved away - many of them heading to other Western states, according to the state Department of Finance.

The Golden State's population grew by 353,000 to 38.4 million from July 2008 to July 2009. The only years with lower growth rates since 1900 were 1994-96, according to a report released by the department Thursday.

More people left the state for other parts of the country than moved here, a difference of about 142,000 people. While that number is outweighed by people moving from other countries to California, it continues a trend of migration to other states that began in 2005.

Since that year, more than half a million more people have left California than have moved to the state. They mainly have moved to neighboring Western states, said Mary Heim, chief of the demographic research unit at the Department of Finance. In past years, more of those people moved to Nevada, but last year saw an increase in people moving to Oregon and Washington, she said. Texas also attracts a large number of Californians.

Hans Johnson, a demographer at the Public Policy Institute of California, said he is not surprised by the data.

"Most people who move to or from California do so for economic reasons, specifically jobs. Our unemployment rate is significantly higher than the rest of the country and when that happens, California tends to send more migrants to other states than we receive," Johnson said.

California's birthrate and immigration from outside the United States, both legal and illegal, kept the state's growth rate positive at 0.92 percent.

Bay Area counties saw higher growth rates than the state at large. Santa Clara County grew by 1.38 percent, while Contra Costa and Alameda counties also were among the top 10 for growth in the state, both with a 1.18 percent increase. San Francisco grew 0.96 percent over last year.

Among the nine Bay Area counties, only Contra Costa, Marin and Sonoma counties had more people moving in from other states than leaving.

Stemming the loss of population to other states has been a priority for Republicans at the state Capitol, who blame California's regulatory climate for pushing jobs, and thus residents, to other states.

"People coming to California in general do not have resources, and the people who do have resources and wealth are leaving the state," said Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Linda (Yuba County), vice chairman of the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy.

He said Republicans plan to ask Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger next month to declare a state of emergency for the economy and jobs and suspend various regulations, including AB32, the state's greenhouse gas reduction plan.

"It's not regulation, it's strangulation," he said.

But Jed Kolko, an economist at the Public Policy Institute, said his research shows that lower income people are most likely to leave the state, and he pointed to a Brookings Institution study released earlier in the week that showed there was actually an increase in the number of college graduates moving to the state from elsewhere in 2008.

Population report highlights
-- Alpine is the least populated California county, with 1,180 people, .003 percent of the state. Los Angeles is the most populous county, with more than 10.4 million people, 27 percent.

-- The state's nine largest counties - Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Alameda, Sacramento and Contra Costa - each have more than 1 million residents. They are home to 70 percent of Californians.

-- Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside and Santa Clara counties posted the highest numeric population gains and account for more than half of the state's growth. Growth in these counties was primarily due to more births than deaths.

-- Imperial, Placer and Tulare counties had the largest percentage increases in population, each growing by more than 1.5 percent. Population change ranged from the highest growth rate of 2.2 percent in Imperial to a 2.3 percent decline in Alpine.

-- Natural increase (more births than deaths) was the primary source of growth in the state and for 37 of the state's 58 counties. Ten counties experienced natural decrease (more deaths than births) - Amador, Calaveras, Lake, Mariposa, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Trinity and Tuolumne.

-- People moving in was the primary source of growth in 15 counties, while in 25 counties, more people moved out.

E-mail Wyatt Buchanan at wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... .DTL&tsp=1

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