![]() A bird rookery on Jekyll Island, one of the four barrier islands in Glynn County, Georgia.Ģ. The Associated Press contributed to this report.Pond with great egrets in the background. Manteca, at 86,859 residents, grew at a 2.2% rate, with 1,864 residents. Lathrop was the second-fastest growing city in the state, with 1,947 new residents giving the city a population of 31,331, a 6.6% increase. In the Central Valley, Lathrop and Manteca were among cities seeing the most growth, with their close proximity to the Bay Area. They are three of the most populous counties in the country. They included Los Angeles County - the nation’s most populous, with 9.8 million residents - and San Diego and Orange counties. ![]() Thirty-four of the state’s 58 counties lost people last year. “It represents an economic kind of stagnation." “The migration is a manifestation of a lot of the problems that people face," said Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow with the Pacific Research Institute. Opinion: Population loss: new era or pandemic glitch? That's forcing people to flee the picturesque population centers of the coast for the relatively cheaper havens of the Inland Empire and the vast Central Valley. That wealth has made it harder for some to live in California, where the median price of an existing single-family home hit a record high of $849,080 in March - a 2.6% increase over the previous record set in August. California had a record budget surplus last year, and is in line for an even larger one this year of as much as $68 billion - mostly the result of a progressive tax structure and a disproportionate population of billionaires. But the decline hasn't impacted the state's bottom line. census showed it did not grow as fast as other states. Impacts of the decline have already been felt, as California lost a seat in Congress for the first time after the U.S. “It says something about how hard it is for people to afford living here.”Ĭrime, homelessness: Is California, one of the bluest states in the US, at a turning point? It's hard to see that changing significantly,” he said. “California is one of the biggest losers in that calculation. It's one reason why he thinks California has is “in a period of stagnation for the foreseeable future.” California has been losing population to other states for 30 years, said Eric McGhee, a senior at the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank. Gavin Newsom in last year's recall election. “It's not because we no longer have good weather,” quipped Republican Assemblymember Kevin Kiley, who is running for Congress this year after failing to unseat Gov. About 280,000 more people left California for other states than moved here in 2021, continuing a decades-long trend. “I think we will be looking at positive growth when we talk about the year 2022,” he said.Ĭritics point to the steady stream of people leaving California as an indictment on the state's policies, which are set by Democrats in the governor's office and the state Legislature. ![]() Walter Schwarm, California's chief demographer, said he wasn't surprised by the decline because “It takes awhile for the machinery of government and others to get back to normal." State officials blamed the loss on a declining birth rate for California coupled with an increase in deaths, mostly because of COVID-19.Īlso, fewer people are moving to California from other states and state officials have said that federal immigration policies have drastically curtailed the number of people moving to the state from other countries.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |