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California population continues decline

December 26, 2022

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

California lost more than 100,000 residents over the last fiscal year, marking two consecutive years of population decline in the Golden State. [KTLA]

The state has a population of 39,029,342, as of July 2022. California’s population decreased by more than 113,000 residents between July 2021 and July 2022. It declined by more than 500,000 residents between July 2020 and July 2022.

In 2019-2020, California only gained 21,200 residents, a .05 percent increase. At the time, that marked California’s record low growth rate since 1900.

Nationwide, the United States population increased by 0.4% in 2021-2022. It rose by 1,256,033 residents to a total of 333,287,557.


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California has become a police state. As an example, I already commented on this post but for no apparent reason, the moderator of this site saw my innocuous comment unfit for posting here. Free Julian Assange!


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There is no Heaven or haven states left in the USA anymore ….Every major city in USA is majority Democrat . With high income taxes , high sales tax and very expensive property taxes, very expensive home owner insurance policies etc etc etc .All the other states leaders realized California people were flooding in so they have adjusted their coffer filling rates …At first glance other states appear to be Heaven or haven on earth , but within a few years reality sets in and people realize they are basically stuck in their grass is greener new state .


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Beg to differ, could live at the Oregon Washington border. Washington has no state income tax and Oregon has no sales tax. The eastern sides of these states are Republican.

There are also states with no inheritance tax.

IDBOUND, you simply haven’t travelled the US and investigated how states and locaities tax and their political persuasion.


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Here’s the list on state income taxes: Nine states right now don’t assess personal income taxes—Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming—with Mississippi the most likely to join their ranks in 2023.

Research out state sales tax from above: Alaska 0%, Florida 6%, Mississippi 7%, Nevada 6.85%, New Hampshire 0%, South Dakota 4.5%, Tennessee 7%, Texas 6.5%, Washington 0% if you shop in Oregon, and Wyoming 4%.

Property taxes and insurance depends on what you own, live in a rented shipping container!


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Francesca, the reason people don’t sell, and move away to a “red” state or whatever is in my opinion due to two reasons, and only two ;


1. The weather. As a native Californian I have lived in other states and other parts of the world. Yet, all in all California, especially coastal areas has the worlds best weather bar none.


2. Natural beauty and geographic diversity. Beautiful coastlines and beaches with dramatic coast ranges. Further east the majestic and mighty Sierra Nevada range ( the highest peak in the contiguous US), the largest living things (Sequoia Gigantea), and within eyesight of beautiful deserts (Death Valley), Anza Borrego, etc.


Anyway , you see my point. California’s crime, homelessness, mental illness, poor public educational performance, and poor affordability are not anything to be proud of. In fact, states like Texas, Florida, Ohio, and a few others are doing much better in many of these categories.


This is just a fact


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By stating your reasons for being here as the natural beauty, I guess you are OK with our “excessive” and “liberal” environmental laws that preserve those things. Without them, places like Yosemite would be all be developed and sold to the rich and you would never be allowed in. Our coast would be covered with structures for the wealthy and our resources would have all been completely plundered by now for private gain, because anything else is “socialism”. During the last presidential administration, there was even talk of divesting our country of the “burden” of our National Parks system and selling it off to resource development for money. That we would have seen none of, by the way. Because that too would have been “socialism”.


We do have homelessness and mental illness here. The mental illness and much of the homelessness started with Ronald Reagan’s time as governor, when he turned helpless mentally ill onto the streets, to “save you money”. “Conservatives” loved it. Tax breaks to the rich and the streets for the weakest among us. You might want to check on just whom in our legislature prevents more from being done about that. Especially when it comes to broken and disabled veterans.


Our crime is NOT higher than in red states. In fact, that talking point is totally false. Crime is actually higher in red states. Some of them by a wide margin. As are excessive (preventable) death rates. Much higher than in blue states. I get a bit worn from constantly listening to so called “conservative” viewpoints about what they are unhappy with when it was their own votes that created the situations.


As for some of the other complaints I have seen, such as the implication that immigrants don’t pay taxes, that is bull as well. They may make up a SS number in order to work, but that goes into our general fund and because they are not a real account, they will never be able to withdraw from it. This means that you benefit not only from their cheap labor to lower the nation’s food costs, but they are paying for your retirement with no benefit to themselves. Gee, win-win for you. But by all means, continue to categorize them as the worst of the criminal element, terrorize and hunt them down like animals.


Now there is a fact I am genuinely not proud of.


-31

“Our coast would be covered with structures for the wealthy and our resources would have all been completely plundered by now for private gain”


An excellent point. I know that anyone who lives on the CC has visited Cayucos and seen that long stretch of beach between Morro Bay and Cayucos which is now the Toro Creek Conservation Area. There simply aren’t that many stretches of beach in California that are like it, without property built up around it and that are totally free to the public.


This was partly the good work of Supervisor Bruce Gibson, who, of course, is the scourge of local Republicans. I often wonder that if Debbie Arnold had represented that area, I would be playing golf next to an expensive resort on that beach as I do in Pismo. Which is appealing, but no where near as good as seeing my dog romp in the surf, tourists walking and surfers surfing (sorry, 12 Days of Christmas is in my head).


-16

Never one to take anybody’s word for it, I looked up your parameters for why Texas, Florida and Ohio are better than Cali.


First, crime: it looks like Cali is a bit safer than Texas and not quite as safe as Ohio or Florida, but all four states are firmly planted in the middle of U.S. crime rates.


https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/crime-rate-by-state


Second, homelessness. California has by far the highest number of homeless people. I think that has to do with weather and a more generous safety net. Unfortunately, Florida, Texas and Ohio also rank in the top 10 for highest homeless populations.


https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/homeless-population-by-state


Third, mental illness: Florida is slightly better, but Texas and Ohio lag behind California in statistics concerning mental illness.


https://mhanational.org/issues/2022/ranking-states


Fourth, education: Using a variety of factors, Intelligent.com gives California an overall ranking of 15, while Ohio (24), Florida (25) and Texas (28) lag behind.


https://www.intelligent.com/the-best-and-worst-states-for-education/


Fifth, affordability: Texas, Florida and Ohio (which ranks as the most affordable state) finish way ahead of Cali (48).


https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/opportunity/affordability


So, maybe not quite as black and white as first thought and I don’t think you can really say these states are “doing much better” than Cali. California is a huge, multidimensional state with lots of issues. The problem with moving, as you noted, is that you no longer live in California with its spectacular weather and natural beauty. Most people will never be able to move back once they’ve left and decide where they moved to is not as good as here.


-2

Adam Trask, thank you.


-9

Excellent analysis. I sometimes wonder if the advocates for “Texas, Florida and Ohio, etc.” have ever been to “Texas, Florida and Ohio, etc.”


-10

Yes, I have many times. Yet I still live in SLO County, for the reasons stated.


Conversely, I sometimes wonder why others who fail to recognize the really deep problems and challenges facing California that are incentivizing people to move, ever take the opportunity to escape the comfortable bubble of central, coastal California. Try taking a drive down US 101 between San Francisco and Morgan Hill. Or, drive to LA, the 405 south and drive down Wilshire Blvd or Santa Monica Blvd, Venice, etc…Or, if you are really brave try the so called “inland empire.”


And after you do that and still think everything is just peachy, have someone check to make sure you have a pulse.


The quality of life in the golden state, on the whole, is diminishing, that’s just an empirical fact. My fear is that this trajectory is not sustainable and our leaders are focused on other issues.


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