The population of California declined for the second straight year in 2021, with officials blaming lower birth rates, the pandemic, and other reasons for the drop, while outgoing citizens place the blame on violent crime numbers, property prices, and the state’s education system.
There were 117,552 fewer residents in California as of Jan. 1, 2022, when compared to the previous year, according to a May 2 press release by the state’s Department of Finance.
The total population of the state as of Jan. 1 was 39,185,605, which is 0.3 percent lower than in January 2021.
“As Baby Boomers age and fertility declines among younger cohorts, the continuing slowdown in natural increase—births minus deaths—underlies the plateauing of the state’s population growth. The addition of COVID-19-related deaths, federal policies restricting immigration, and an increase in domestic out-migration further affected population totals,” the release states.
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