Data published by the U.S. Census Bureau found that despite births outnumbering deaths and the arrival of over 125,000 immigrants, the state's population shrank again as more than 300,000 moved out of the state. Between July 2021 and July 2022, the number of people fell from 39,142,991 to 39,029,342 — a fall of around 114,000 people.
“There was a sizeable uptick in population growth last year compared to the prior year’s historically low increase,” Kristie Wilder, a demographer with the Census Bureau, said on publishing the figures. “A rebound in net international migration, coupled with the largest year-over-year increase in total births since 2007, is behind this increase.”
H.D. Palmer, deputy director of external affairs at the California Department of Finance, told the Sacramento Bee that the shrinking population was mainly a result of the state's cost of living crisis.
“If you talk to demographers, they’ll say that one of the factors is the cost of housing,” Palmer said. “And that’s continued to be a challenging issue for the state.”
California's outward migration is also heavily influenced by politics, with Democrats maintaining an iron grip on the state and practically all of its largest cities and local governments. Many Republicans, seeking freedom from hardline COVID restrictions and a lower cost of living, have moved to red and purple states with Texas and Florida being the most popular destinations.
Texas's population rose by 470,708 people since July 2021, reaching a total of over 30 million. Meanwhile, Florida’s population increased by 416754, resulting in a total resident population of 22,244,823. This migration likely had an impact on the results of the midterms, as Republicans tightened their control over both states.
The other state to experience a major population decrease was New York, as some 180,000 people permanently left the state over cost of living concerns. Despite this outward migration, Republicans made gains in both New York and California as they picked up congressional seats outside the traditional urban areas, without which they would have almost certainly failed to take back control of the House of Representatives.
