Bay Area residents slow exodus in second year of the pandemic

The moving vans of residents leaving San Francisco and other Bay Area cities have slowed to a crawl.

The nine-county Bay Area had fewer people leave during the second year of the pandemic, suggesting the exodus may be petering out, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

San Francisco’s population fell by 0.4 percent, or 2,800 people, from July 2021 to July of last year, according to new Census numbers. That’s less than the 6.3 percent drop of 55,000 people in the previous 12 months.

In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, the city had the second-largest percentage decline in population of all U.S. counties behind Manhattan.

This marks the fourth straight year that San Francisco has seen a population loss, including the 900 residents who left in the last full survey before the pandemic.

The city had net out-migration of 9,400 residents from July 2021 to July 2022, compared with a  net out-migration of about 58,000 people in the previous year. San Francisco’s estimated population of 808,437 is the lowest since the July 2010 census.

During the same period, Napa County saw a 1.4 percent loss in population, the highest percentage in the Bay Area, followed by San Mateo County’s 1.3 percent, down from a 3 percent drop the previous year. Marin County had a 1.2 percent decline.

The other five Bay Area counties had losses below 1 percent, according to the Chronicle.

The Bay Area slowdown on population loss matched other major cities across the nation,  which lost residents at a lower rate than the previous year.

“The migration and growth patterns for counties edged closer to pre-pandemic levels this year,” Christine Hartley, the Census Bureau assistant division chief for estimates and projections, said in a statement. “Some urban counties, such as Dallas and San Francisco, saw domestic outmigration at a slower pace between 2021 and 2022, compared to the prior year.”

From July 2021 to July 2022, California’s population fell 0.3 percent, to just over 39 million people.

Lassen County saw the biggest percentage population drop in the country at 6 percent, about  1,900 people, for which state officials blamed the closure of a state prison, according to the Chronicle.

Los Angeles County, the most populous in the nation, lost just over 90,000 people, or 0.9 percent, from July 2021 to July 2022, about half of its losses from the previous year.

In New York, population losses slowed. While Manhattan gained nearly 17,500 people, the Bronx and Queens had some of the highest percentage drops in the nation. Counties that included Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore and Portland, Ore., also had losses of more than 1 percent.

The Sun Belt continued to add to its population, with half of the 10 fastest-growing counties based on percentage growth in Texas. Counties in Florida and Georgia also saw big gains.

— Dana Bartholomew