From 2010 - 2020 California's Population Declined For Reasons Other Than You Might Think

CALIFORNIA — Los Angeles, Irvine and San Diego are among the fastest-growing cities in California, according to newly released 2020 census data. Still, people have left the golden state in droves during the past 10 years. Whether populations have declined due the pandemic, drought, or as a direct result of wildfire, a report from the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday says no town has been deserted more than the city of Paradise.

The idyllic mountain community was decimated by the Camp Fire in 2018, which ate its way through 240 square miles of California. As of 2020, only 4,764 people call Paradise home, with 21,454 no longer living in the small mountain town.

The new statistics illustrate population changes for the nation, states and communities down to the block level. The data, which shows an increase in the population of the nation’s metro areas compared to a decade ago, also shows population changes in smaller cities.

The data represents where people were living as of April 1, 2020.

These are the top 10 fastest growing cities by number of residents added, according to the census data:

1. Los Angeles: + 106,126
2. Irvine: + 95,295
3. San Diego: + 79,530
4. San Francisco: + 68,730
5. San Jose: + 67,298
6. Sacramento: + 58,455
7. Bakersfield: + 55,972
8. Santa Clarita: + 52,353
9. Oakland: + 49,922
10. Fresno: + 47,442

The top 10 by percentage growth are

1. Vernon: 98.21 percent growth
2. Lathrop: 59.25 percent growth
3. Dublin: 57.68 percent growth
4. Imperial City: 37.3 percent growth
5. Rio Vista: 35.94 percent growth
6. Lake Elsinore: 35.59 percent growth
7. Menifee: 32.26 percent growth
8. Coalinga: 31.46 percent growth
9. Oroville: 28.92 percent growth
10. Emeryville: 28.03 percent growth

Since the 2010 census, the population of U.S. metro areas has grown by 9 percent. Eighty-six percent of the country’s population was living in metro areas in 2020, compared to 85 percent in 2010.

Metro areas in the south and western United States saw the most growth, according to Marc Perry, a senior demographer at the Census Bureau.

“However, as we’ve been seeing in our annual population estimates, our nation is growing slower than it used to,” Perry said in a news release. “This decline is evident at the local level, where around 52 percent of the counties in the United States saw their 2020 census populations decrease from their 2010 census populations.”

Plenty of cities in California also lost population in the decade between 2010 and 2020. Towns like Paradise were forever changed by wildfire and may never fully recover.

Declining Population, Decline In Representation At Federal Level

With a low birth rate in the state, and a death rate increasing due to California's aging population, representation is also changing. For the first time in the state's 171 year history, we're losing a congressional seat. One fewer vote in the House means less of a voice in federal policymaking, and one fewer vote at the Electoral College, which chooses the president.

It also means less money for the state.

Here are the top 10 cities that saw the biggest decrease in population, listed from highest to lowest percentage:

1. Paradise lost 81.83 percent
2. Ione City lost 35.07 percent
3. Fort Jones lost 17.16 percent
4. Trinidad lost 16.35 percent
5. Colmal lost 15.9 percent
6. Malibu lost 15.75 percent
7. Calipatria lost 15.44 percent
8. Carmel-by-the-Sea lost 13.49 percent
9. Mammoth Lakes lost 12.67 percent
10. Bradbury lost 12.12 percent

Here are some other interesting findings from the data:

• The largest city in the United States in 2020 remains New York, with 8.8 million people.

• The largest county in the United States in 2020 remains Los Angeles County, with over 10 million people.

• The fastest-growing U.S. metro area between the 2010 and 2020 censuses was The Villages, FL, which grew 39 percent, from about 93,000 people to about 130,000.

• The U.S. metro areas with the largest declines in population were Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Danville, Illinois, losing 12.5 percent and 9.1 percent of their populations, respectively.

Read more about the 2020 U.S. Census results