In this Dec. 7, 2020, file photo, a person wearing a protective mask walks in front of the skyline on Bernal Heights Hill during the coronavirus pandemic in San Francisco. California's population has declined for the first time in its history. State officials announced Friday, May 7, 2021, that the nation's most populous state lost 182,083 people in 2020. California's population is now just under 39.5 million. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
By Adam Beam
California’s population fell by more than 182,000 people in 2020, marking the first year-over-year loss ever recorded for the nation’s most populous state.
State officials announced Friday that California’s population dipped 0.46% to just under 39.5 million people from January 2020 to January 2021.
The news comes one week after the U.S. Census Bureau announced a paltry population growth for California, resulting in the state losing a congressional seat for the first time because it grew more slowly than other states over the past decade.
But the census numbers reflect the state’s population in April 2020. The new state numbers released Friday reflect the state’s population as of January 2021.
California became a state in 1850 on the heels of a gold rush that prompted people to seek their fortune out west. The population soared following World War II with the help of a robust defense and aerospace industry. It boomed again in the 1980s and 1990s as technology companies put Silicon Valley on the map.
But the growth slowed after the end of the Cold War in the 1990s when the federal government cut back on defense spending and again in the years before the Great Recession in the late 2000s.
State officials say California has seen more people leave than move in from other states for much of the last three decades. However, that had been offset by international immigration and births so that California continued to grow.
That changed in 2020. State officials say a declining birth rate, plus reductions in international immigration and an increase in deaths because of the coronavirus, led to the state's first-ever year-over-year population loss.
California had a negative international migration in 2020, which state officials say was a direct impact from the Trump administration's decision to stop issuing new visas for much of that year. Coronavirus restrictions around the world also caused about a 29% decline in international students coming to California or about 53,000 people.
Plus, about 51,000 people died from the coronavirus in California last year. That's a 19% increase above the state's average death rate for the past three years. In all, 51 of the state's 58 counties posted death rates above the three-year average — including 12 that had increases of 20% or more.
In a news release, the California Department of Finance said it expects the state to return to a “slightly positive annual growth” for the 2021 calendar year. Those numbers will be released next May.
The state's population has become a political issue this year in light of the effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom, with Republicans blaming high taxes and the governor's policies for people fleeing the state. From 2010 to 2020, about 6.1 million people left California for other states compared to about 4.9 million people who moved to California from other states, according to an analysis of census data by the Public Policy Institute of California.
The Department of Finances population estimate comes from a number of sources, including birth and death counts, the number of new driver's licenses and address changes, school enrollments, and federal tax returns.
Sweta Chakraborty, U.S. President of We Don't Have Time and climate change expert, joins Cheddar News to discuss how mining the proper resources for the clean energy sector is crucial.
Throughout 2021, several Americans found themselves finding a renewed emphasis on what work-life balance looked like. The labor market experienced several people either quitting their jobs or leaving the workforce altogether. Editor at Labor Notes Alexandra Bradbury, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Whitney Johnson, CEO of human capital consultancy Disruption Advisors and author of 'SMART GROWTH: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company', joins Cheddar News to discuss the rise in entrepreneurship and explores new opportunities to grow personally and professionally.
Two major high profile cases on opposite ends of the country, as they both now lie in the hands of the jury. In New York, jury deliberations continue in the sex trafficking trial of Jeffrey Epstein's longtime partner, Ghislaine Maxwell. Jurors in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial will be back to deliberate just a day after the judge told asked them to stay for an extra hour, as they signaled they're still far from a verdict in that sex trafficking case. The Elizabeth Holmes jury also apparently no closer to a verdict after five days of deliberations as well. Florina Altshiler criminal defense attorney & former prosecutor spoke to Cheddar about the latest on the cases.
2021 proved that crypto currency is here to stay. This year saw more and more adoptions of crypto, from top athletes looking to be paid in bitcoin, to Elon Musk even experimenting with bitcoin and dogecoin payments for a bit over at Tesla. And it wasn't all bitcoin either - other cryptos like Cardano and Solana saw some action in 2021 as well. Patrick McConlogue, CEO of Overline and former Citadel Investment Group Engineer explains why 2021 was such a good year for crypto, and what to expect in 2022.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index showed an 18.4 percent surge in October as the housing market continues to boom. October's levels are a slight downturn from the roughly 19 percent increase the index saw in September, but come roughly in line with economist expectations. Michael J. Romer, Managing Partner, Romer Debbas joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
U.S. airlines have canceled more than 6,000 flights since Christmas eve, causing headaches for travelers.
Airlines cited staffing shortages amid the omicron outbreak as the primary reason for the interruptions to service. The cancellations come at the busiest time of year for air travel. Steve Shur, President, The Travel Technology Association joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
Adult-use cannabis sales kicked off in Nevada in 2017, but four years later, there isn’t a legal way for the 40 million tourists who visit the state annually to consume. That’s all about to change. Following the passage in June of a bill to legalize consumption lounges, the world’s largest dispensary, Planet 13, is planning a cannabis club as extravagant as Las Vegas. Cheddar’s Chloe Aiello visited the cannabis entertainment complex to find out more.
