As California’s population drops due to a mass exodus of residents escaping high taxes, exorbitant housing costs, and increasing homelessness, there’s another factor that’s been quietly contributing to the downturn: the declining birth rate. Data shows that while the Golden State’s population continues to grow old, young adults are having fewer kids. John Moorlach, a former state senator and Orange County supervisor, told The Epoch Times that the long-term impact of the state’s dropping birth rate is “hard to predict,” because the current administration’s border policy has made immigration numbers unclear. But if immigration is minimized and there is zero growth, Moorlach said “the old rule in businesses” would apply: “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.” The state’s birth rate compared to the death rate has been slowing since the 1990s, according to the Public Policy Institute. Between 1991 and 2010, it hovered just above 280,000 annually—but since 2015, the …