California’s growth proposition called into question again

California saw a continued reversal of its historic pattern of growth, notching a loss of population for the second year in a row over the 12-month period ended on July 1, newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates.

The state saw a 0.3 percent decline—a net loss of about 113,000 on its population base, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

California remains the largest state in the union, with a population just over 39 million.

California’s growth into the most populous state in the union came over a nearly 170-year run in tandem with unprecedented real estate development. A continued decline in population undoubtedly brings changes to the longstanding and symbiotic equation.

A larger loss of population to domestic migration over the 12-month period—343,000 people moved out—was offset in part by immigration from other countries. Immigration is a source of population growth that had long been large enough to ensure net gains even with losses to other states before slowing during the pandemic era.

The uptick in immigration and a gain owing to birth rates outweighing deaths left some observers speculating that the trend of population declines are a temporary effect of the pandemic.

California, by any measure, found itself in the unusual circumstance of trailing the national trend on population growth as the U.S. overall saw a gain of 0.4%. That came to nearly a1.3 million people, putting the national population at 333 million as of July 1, according to theCensus Bureau.

Texas was the biggest net gainer among states in term, adding 470,000 to join California as the only other state with a population topping 30 million, barely ending over the mark.

Florida saw the largest gain in relation to its population base, with a 1.9% increase equating to a gain of 416,754 and an overall population of 22.2 million—third among all states.