After years of population loss, California announced the biggest immigration-related population increase since 2020.
The state’s Department of Finance (DOF) published a report indicating that 39,128, 162 people had called California home as of January 1, 2024. The study also said that this represented “positive population growth.”
This was a population increase of around 67,000 individuals for the state, or 0.17 percent.
“In 2023, California witnessed positive population growth for the first time since 2020, mostly due to a decline in mortality and an increase in lawful foreign immigration,” a statement from the California Department of Food and Agriculture stated.
Officials from the Department of Fish and Game in California attributed the increase to natural population growth, a decrease in COVID-19 mortality, and lawful immigration.
“A strong basis for ongoing growth has returned, with fatalities reverting to long-term patterns and immigration processing backlogs virtually cleared,” the state DOF stated. “We anticipate slower but healthy growth in California in the near future, as net domestic migration has declined to its lower rates of the 2010s.”
According to a news release from Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA), the research also revealed that 31 counties in the state had population increases, including the “Bay Area, Central Valley, and the Inland Empire.”
According to the press release, Orange County’s population increased by 0.31 percent, while Los Angeles County’s increased by 0.05 percent.
According to Newsom, “people are traveling to the Golden State to experience the prosperity of the fifth-largest economy in the world and to chase the California Dream.” “Regions throughout California are thriving, from the Inland Empire to the Bay Area, bolstering local communities and advancing our state’s future.”
California lost almost 500,000 individuals during the COVID-19 epidemic, or about half of the state’s total population.
More people than anybody else in the United States sought to leave San Francisco and Los Angeles in January, according to research from Redfin from February 2023.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s assessment coincides with an unverified report from Border Patrol officers that Breitbart News obtained, which stated that during the first 21 days of April, Border Patrol agents had interacted with over 25,000 migrants in the San Diego Sector.
Residents of California who are illegal immigrants now have access to taxpayer-funded health insurance as of the beginning of this year.
This occurred while the state was still battling a declining population. According to U.S. Census Bureau figures released in December 2023, California’s population decreased by 75,000 from 2022 to 2023.
With an estimated population of 38,965,000 million, the state was still significantly smaller than when it peaked in 2019 with 39.5 million residents.
