The population in Northern California is on the decline, according to data released March 31 by the U.S. Census Bureau, with more than 250,000 people—approximately half the population of Wyoming—fleeing the San Francisco Bay Area since 2020.
Santa Clara County experienced the most migration, with about 80,000 choosing to leave, but more births than deaths in the county helped it essentially tie with San Franciso as the leaders in population declines, equating to approximately 65,000 each.
The majority of San Francisco’s exodus, with more than 7.5 percent leaving, occurred in the year immediately following the 2020 onset of the pandemic.
A host of issues are contributing to the exodus, according to Lee Ohanian, professor of economics at the University of California–Los Angeles and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution….