State Gained 654,000 People Last Fiscal Year

California’s population increased by 654,000 people during the 1991-92 fiscal year to a record 31.3 million, the state Department of Finance said in a report released Tuesday.

In Orange County, the population hit 2.5 million, an increase of 57,000 people over the previous 12 months.

Foreign immigrants accounted for nearly half the population gain statewide, and births exceeded deaths by 605,000 to 212,000, the department’s demographic research unit reported.

That was California’s second-highest annual number of births, falling 4,000 short of the record of 609,000 births the previous year. Only two sparsely populated counties, Amador and Sierra, had more deaths than births.

Immigration from foreign countries was the highest in two decades at 303,000. Net migration among the states reduced overall growth slightly, as 41,000 more people left for other states than moved to California.

The figures are all estimates for the 12 months ending last July 1 based on school, drivers license, income tax and other records kept by public agencies. The most recent actual population count was the 1990 federal census, which reported a statewide population of 29,839,250.