April 30, 2009
State adds another 409,000 to its population

Despite a severe recession, California's population continued to grow in 2008, largely due to its continued high birthrate.

The state Department of Finance reported today that the state's population grew by 409,000 during the year, reaching 38,293,000, based on its calculation of statistical indices.

The growth, at 1.1 percent, is a bit lower than in other recent years. Demographers believe that the economy has discouraged the state's traditionally high level of immigration, while impelling others to seek better opportunities in other states. But births, running well over 500,000 a year, pushed the population upward, nonetheless.

Fresno replaced Long Beach as the state's fifth most populous state during the year, demographers said, as its population hit 495,513, while San Jose saw its population rise to just over 1 million. Sand City, a tiny suburb of Monterey, was the state's fastest growing city, reaching a population of 312.

The complete report, which includes county-by-county and city-by-city data, is available here.

Categories: California by the Numbers
Posted by Dan Walters
1:23 PM | Comments (13) |
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