Californians are leaving the state at rates not recorded since the turn of the 20th century, according to new data released by the California’s Department of Finance.
The research points to an aging population, low birth rates, migration due to taxes, and an increasingly unstable environment. Although California notched a 0.35% growth rate between July 1, 2018, and July 1, 2019, the department highlighted the number is “down from 0.57% for the prior 12 months — the two lowest recorded growth rates since 1900.”
Though a natural increase of 180,800 people was measured between natural births (452,200) and natural deaths (271,400), net migration to other western states offset the gains.
The numbers mark “the first time since the 2010 census that California has had more people leaving the state than moving in from abroad or other states,” Eddie Hunsinger, a demographer for the DOF, told the Los Angeles Times.
In September, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and City Councilman Joe Buscaino sent a letter to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, demanding that something be done to curb the growing homelessness problem in LA. The city has seen more than 60,000 new homeless people in the last year alone.
In 2018, San Francisco created a “poop patrol” to help fight the growing issue of street defecation that has plagued the Bay Area city. More than 25,000 complaints of feces being found in the street were logged in 2019. In December, a viral video showed a man defecating in a San Francisco grocery store.
Adding to the issues of homelessness and public safety is a worrying drop in birth rates throughout the state.
Dowell Myers, a demographics expert at the University of Southern California, pointed to low birth rates among millennials and a housing crisis in southern California as troubling trends leading the findings.
“I think because of housing prices. The peak millennial is turning 30 in 2020,” Myers told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s a pivotal moment, and they can’t find housing. So people aren’t coming as much, and they’re leaving here more.”
