California will always be a popular destination for tourists and those looking to move away from extreme seasonal weather in other parts of the country. The state’s population, however, continues to decline, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Figures released last week showed California’s resident population at 39,029,342 in July 2022, a decline of more than 113-thousand since July 2021 and down more than a half-million people since July 2020.
H.D. Palmer, deputy director of external affairs at the California Department of Finance, told the Sacramento Bee that the shrinking population reflects the Golden State’s housing affordability crisis.
“If you talk to demographers, they’ll say that one of the factors is the cost of housing,” Palmer said. “And that’s continued to be a challenging issue for the state.”
New York State also experienced a significant decline.
Nationwide, the U.S. population increased by 0.4%, or 1,256,003, to 333,287,557 in 2022, the Census Bureau said.
“There was a sizeable uptick in population growth last year compared to the prior year’s historically low increase,” Kristie Wilder, a demographer with the Census Bureau, said in a news release. “A rebound in net international migration, coupled with the largest year-over-year increase in total births since 2007, is behind this increase.”
Texas and Florida continue to see the most significant growth among the nation’s largest states.
Texas gained 470,708 people since July 2021, reaching a total population of 30,029,572.
“By crossing the 30-million-population threshold this past year, Texas joins California as the only states with a resident population above 30 million,” the release said.
Florida’s population increased 1.9% from 2021 to 2022, resulting in a total resident population of 22,244,823.
NEXSTAR MEDIA
