California’s inhabitants elevated by 108,000 individuals final yr, rising for the second yr in a row, in line with new estimates launched by the California Division of Finance. This new information solidifies what final yr’s information confirmed for the primary time: The much-discussed exodus has ended, after three years of inhabitants losses throughout early coronavirus pandemic disruptions and California’s stricter-than-average lockdown guidelines.
California’s inhabitants was estimated to be 39,529,101 on January 1, 2025, a rise of 0.28% from the yr earlier than. The inhabitants complete is simply 10,000 individuals in need of the state’s peak inhabitants of 39,538,223 as of the 2020 Census counts on April 1, 2020.
In 2020, the state’s inhabitants dropped by 166,000 residents, and one other 190,000 in 2021, leaving simply 39.18 million estimated residents within the Golden State on Jan. 1 2022. In 2022, the restoration began, with the state rising by an estimated 49,000 residents, then rising by 192,000 the following yr.
Whereas the state’s progress has introduced the inhabitants again to pre-pandemic ranges, the annual enhance continues to be in need of the typical enhance of 287,000 residents a yr between 2011 and 2016.
The state demographers use the U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, after which base their estimates on state-specific loss of life, beginning and immigration information. Some California consultants desire the Division of Finance information over the U.S. Census Bureau’s inhabitants estimates as a result of the Census makes use of the identical components for all states, whereas California’s demographers could make extra California-specific estimates.
The report from the finance division additionally displays “an upward revision of California’s 2023 population to a growth rate of 0.49 percent, up from its previously estimated 0.2-percent growth rate,” that means the state was rising quicker in 2023 than final yr’s estimates confirmed.
The state’s demographers attribute the second consecutive yr of progress to a wide range of components, together with a rise in pure progress, with about 115,000 extra births than deaths in 2024, and new information sources that “better estimate California’s share of recent increases in legal immigration” for 2021 by way of 2024, resulting in a further 277,000 extra immigrants in these years than final yr’s estimates confirmed.
For a brief interval throughout the chaos of the early pandemic, the state’s estimates began to diverge from the nationwide estimates for California’s inhabitants, however that hole has shrunk as the 2 sources have largely re-aligned.
Census inhabitants estimates are calculated for July 1 of every yr, whereas the state’s estimates are for Jan. 1 of every yr.
