International Migration Drives Up California Population Amid Exodus

Houses in a San Diego, Calif., community on May 17, 2024. Jane Yang/The Epoch Times

California’s population recovery is driven mainly by international migration, a factor that also plays a major role in U.S. population growth, recent Census Bureau data show.

The state’s population in 2024 reached more than 39.4 million, about 0.6 percent higher than in 2023, according to new estimates released on Dec. 19 by the U.S. Census Bureau. The estimate for 2024 in California is still about 124,000 less, or 0.3 percent, of the population in April 2020.

The census data show that the state continues to lose residents via domestic migration, as more Californians move to other states than those moving into California in the past few years.

From July 2023 to July 2024, California had a net loss of about 240,000 people to domestic migration. The loss was compensated by a little over 361,000 international migrations in the same period, resulting in a net migration contribution of more than 121,000 people to California’s population.

Meanwhile, adding new births in the state for this time period and subtracting deaths contributed more than 110,000 to the population. As a result, 2024 saw a total increase of nearly 233,000 people to California’s population from last year, according to the Census Bureau.

In the past four years, from April 2020 to July 2024, California lost nearly 1.5 million people to other states. During the same period, international migration brought more than 930,000 people to California, and natural changes in births over deaths contributed more than 418,000 to the population. However, the combined population increases in the latter two categories were not able to offset the exodus loss over this period.

Nationwide, the U.S. population grew by about 1 percent over the past year, surpassing 340 million in 2024.

“This is the fastest annual population growth the nation has seen since 2001—a notable increase from the record low growth rate of 0.2% in 2021,” the Census Bureau said in a statement.

International migration accounted for 84 percent, or 2.8 million, of the nation’s 3.3 million increase in population between 2023 and 2024, the bureau said.

“This reflects a continued trend of rising international migration,” it said.

Net international migration was positive for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the bureau said. Between 2023 and 2024, Florida (411,322), California (361,057), Texas (319,569), and New York (207,161) saw the largest gains from international migration.

Of the four largest populated states, New York (19,867,248), similar to California (39,431,263), continues to lose population to domestic migration, losing a net of more than 120,000 between 2023 and 2024 and more than 966,000 since April 2020.

Both Florida (23,372,215) and Texas (31,290,831) consistently had gains in domestic migration. Florida saw a net domestic migration of 64,000 over the past year and more than 873,000 since April 2020, and Texas had more than 85,000 between 2023 and 2024 and more than 748,000 since April 2020.