(John Ransom, Headline USA) For the second year in a row, population in California, the country’s most populous state, has declined.
The population declines take California’s population back to the 2016 levels, said the UK’s Guardian.
“To a certain extent, we have two or three things happening here — the pandemic is there in the sense that natural increase, it really slowed down over these two years. Some of that is a lack of births because of delayed childbearing decisions,” said Walter Schwarm, chief demographer with the Department of Finance, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“Things are getting a little better, fertility is coming back after the pandemic,” added Schwarm.
In 2020, the state’s population fell for the first time ever losing 182,000 citizens, versus this year’s loss of 117,552. The population of California is shifting from the coastal base inland said the LA Times, and some of that shift can be blamed on record-high housing prices.
“California led in housing price increases for a number of months compared to other metro areas,” Schwarm said. “That alone provides a heavy impetus for people who were maybe on the fence to move.”
The state also blamed a downturn in immigration, legal or illegal, for part of the downturn in population, said the Guardian.
Civic groups have been furiously trying to refute the idea of a “CalExodus” caused by surging taxes, lockdowns, high cost of living, homelessness and the recent crime wave that’s plaguing Californians.
But the truth is that as big companies like Tesla, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle move out of the Golden State for digs they find more financially rewarding, it has to be admitted that something besides COVID is plaguing the state of California.
Policy wonks in California have tried to blame, “right wing media” and “Trump mega donors” for the idea that people are fleeing California in droves.
But that’s not what’s behind exodus from California.
“Quality of life, housing, transportation. So from an economic point of view, waiting at a light, commuting three hours, none of those are good things for productivity,” Adam J. Fowler, an economist at Beacon economics told WBUR.
“That is an inefficient use of human capital. So that isn’t a net winner for any sort of economy, California or otherwise,” added Fowler.
