S.D. Overtakes Orange as 2nd-Largest County

San Diego County’s population increased by 2.6% last year, allowing it to overtake Orange County as the state’s second-largest county, state officials said Wednesday.

Overall, California’s population rose by 570,000, the largest one-year gain since the boom years of the 1950s and 1960s, the officials added. The state’s population was estimated on July 1, 1985, at 26,365,000, almost 8.5 million more than second-ranked New York, said Jesse Huff, state director of finance.

Between July, 1984, and July, 1985, San Diego County’s population rose by 53,400 to 2,131,600, the Finance Department’s figures show. The population change resulted from 36,644 births, 15,515 deaths and a net migration of 32,271 people. Since 1980, San Diego County’s population has increased by 269,754, or 14.5%.

San Diego’s increase enabled it to edge past Orange County, which dropped to the third-largest county in the state with a population of 2,127,900. Los Angeles County remained the state’s largest with 8,085,300 people.

The statewide population increase represented a 2.2% jump over the July 1, 1984, total. The change consisted of 458,000 births, 204,000 deaths and a net migration of 315,000.

The excess of births over deaths of 225,000 was the largest in the state’s history, Huff said. The Finance Department’s Population Research Institute does annual estimates of the state’s population.

Only two of the state’s 58 counties--Modoc and Marin--lost population over the year.

Counties in the Gold Country, along Highway 49 east of Sacramento, had the state’s largest regional growth rate, 4.2%. The San Francisco Bay area had the slowest rate, 1.6%.

Continuing a trend begun in the 1970s, metropolitan counties grew by 2.2%, while non-metropolitan counties grew an average of 3.4%.

The fastest growing county was San Luis Obispo at 5.3%. Los Angeles County had the largest numerical gain--120,700.

Other fast-growing counties were Riverside, 5.1%; Lake, 5.2%; Tuolumne, 5%; El Dorado, 4.9%; Nevada, 4.8%; San Benito, 4.7%; San Bernardino and Amador, 4.5% each, and San Joaquin, 4.4%.