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Civitas Outlook
Topic
Pursuit of Happiness
Published on
Apr 1, 2025
Contributors
Joel Kotkin
Photo by Jordan Crawford on Unsplash

California’s Population Bump Won’t Make Up for Its Long Term Slide

Contributors
Joel Kotkin
Joel Kotkin
Senior Research Fellow
Joel Kotkin
Summary
People are leaving, or not coming to California, for rational reasons — and most of them are economic.
Summary
People are leaving, or not coming to California, for rational reasons — and most of them are economic.

When the U.S. Census Bureau recently revealed a small increase in California’s population, it came as a welcome sign to some that the state was growing again. The data even showed a slightly reduced level of out-migration.

Good news, right? Unfortunately, not good enough.

Last year’s count still leaves the state’s numbers below where they stood in 2020, and its growth rate is below the national average and well below that of key competitor states: Comparing census numbers from 2010 to 2024, California’s population has increased by less than 6%; in Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia and Utah, the increases range from 15% to nearly 30%.

Continue reading at the Los Angeles Times

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