Example Image
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.
Listen to this article

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

10:13
1x
10:13
More articles

Why Reciprocal Trade Negotiations Will Fail

Economic Dynamism
Apr 30, 2025

When Life Becomes Unending Variations on Disease

Pursuit of Happiness
Apr 30, 2025
View all

Join the newsletter

Receive new publications, news, and updates from the Civitas Institute.

Sign up
More on

Pursuit of Happiness

Estimating the Productivity of Community Colleges in Paving the Road To Four-Year College Success

Despite a relatively rich literature on the community college pathway, the research base on the quality differences between these institutions has been decidedly thin.

Scott Carrell, Michal Kurlaender
Pursuit of Happiness
Feb 7, 2025
Brains Versus Brawn: Ordinal Rank Effects in Job Training

Is it better to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond?

Scott Carrell, Alexander J. Chesney
Pursuit of Happiness
Jan 28, 2025
Civic Thought: A Proposal for University-Level Civic Education

An intellectual mission in the fullest sense requires a coherent program of teaching and research in a specific and demanding discipline. This report sketches the outlines of such a program, which we call “Civic Thought.”

Benjamin Storey, Jenna Storey
Pursuit of Happiness
Dec 11, 2023
No items found.
Religious Charter Schools Should Pass the Supreme Court Test

A case from Oklahoma will determine whether American education becomes more or less centralized, homogeneous, and anticompetitive.

Michael Toth, Gavin Schiffres
Pursuit of Happiness
Apr 29, 2025
‘American Oasis’ Review: The Lure of the Desert

The Southwest has recently sent left-leaning senators to Washington. As more minorities move there, the region might shift to the right.

Joel Kotkin
Pursuit of Happiness
Apr 9, 2025
How Federal Lands Can Be Used to Ease the Housing Crisis

To create affordable homes on federal lands, the federal government shouldn’t sell lands for development — it should lease them.

Joel Kotkin, Michael Toth
Pursuit of Happiness
Mar 10, 2025
In Southern L.A., These Cities Are Making a Comeback

The key is governance and a strong local focus.

Joel Kotkin
Pursuit of Happiness
Mar 6, 2025

Populism Unpacked: Voices from the Heartland

Pursuit of Happiness
Mar 4, 2025
1:05

Jeff Rosen on What “The Pursuit of Happiness” Meant to America's Founders

Pursuit of Happiness
Jan 26, 2025
1:05

Arthur C. Brooks on the Pursuit of Happiness in an Unhappy World

Pursuit of Happiness
May 8, 2024
1:05

Arthur C. Brooks on The Art & Science of Getting Happier: Live at The Texas Tribune

Pursuit of Happiness
Mar 29, 2024
1:05

Melissa Kearney on Two-Parent Privilege and Social Mobility

Pursuit of Happiness
Mar 18, 2024
1:05
No items found.
No items found.
When Life Becomes Unending Variations on Disease

Are we getting sicker?

Ronald W. Dworkin
Pursuit of Happiness
Apr 30, 2025
The Quantum Revolution and the Human Spirit

Klavan’s book reveals what interesting times we live in—perhaps uniquely so.

Rob Koons
Pursuit of Happiness
Apr 25, 2025
The Civis in Civic Architecture

A return to the old ways, to traditional and classical architecture, is a return to order, a return of the citizen as the measure of a structure, of an institution.

Paul Zepeda
Pursuit of Happiness
Apr 17, 2025
The Return of the Natural Law

Natural law always returns to bury its undertakers.

Samuel Gregg
Pursuit of Happiness
Apr 14, 2025
No items found.