Population Growth at New Low : Migration: Increase in state residents is the lowest since 1940-41. Weak economy is to blame, officials say.

The net migration to recession-battered California last year was the lowest since such record-keeping began in 1940-41, the state Department of Finance announced Tuesday.

In all, an estimated 65,000 more people migrated to the state in 1993 than moved out, the department noted in its annual population report. Before this report, the lowest net migration on record was 81,000 people in 1967-68.

“What we seem to be seeing is that the sagging California economy is not attracting people to come here from other parts of the U.S. like it used to do,” said John Malson, a state demographer who helped prepare the report.

“The economy is in such a state of flux that people who would normally leave their homes to move here are deciding not to do so--or go elsewhere when they do move.”

Stephen Levy of the nonprofit Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto agreed with the state’s assessment.

“The falloff in migration is a direct result of the long California recession,” Levy said. “People move primarily for jobs and there haven’t been any new jobs to move to in California in the past three years.

“But we would expect the migration trend to turn around when the economy picks up.”

Overall, California’s population in 1993 grew by 1.4%, or 439,000 people, the smallest increase since the state added 404,000 people in 1976-77. The majority of the increase is because of births, although the number of births was also down for the fourth year in a row from the peak of 1990-91.

The report also showed the continuation of a 1990s population trend, in which growth has slowed each year. In 1992-93, the state grew by 540,000 people.

The state’s population reached 31,961,000 as of Jan. 1, according to the report.

Regionally, the Gold Country of the western Sierra grew by the largest percentage, at 2.4% last year.

But numerically, the counties that added the most people were all in Southern California.

Los Angeles County added 71,800 people; Orange County increased by 41,500; San Diego County grew by 41,200; Riverside County added 34,000, and San Bernardino County increased by 26,400.

Only two counties lost population. Sparsely populated Alpine County in Northern California declined by 30 people, and Monterey County dropped by 3,700, mostly because of the closure of Ft. Ord.

For the first time since the 1970s, the city of Los Angeles did not lead the state’s cities in population growth, the report said. Although Los Angeles added 12,200 people, San Diego and San Jose added more, 14,200 and 13,800, respectively.

Based on percentage, the fastest-growing cities in California last year were the small communities of Adelanto at 18.7%; Delano, 16.6%; Lathrop, 13.2%; Coronado, 12.7%, and Twentynine Palms, 12.4%

Part of the increase was because of a new state prison in Delano, while Coronado and Twentynine Palms added military housing, the report noted.

The report tracked population for all counties and 468 cities in the state. Of the cities, 436 showed growth, while 30 cities lost population and two had no change.

The report bases its estimates on a number of factors, such as construction of housing, the census average of people per household, driver’s license address changes and school enrollment.

A Tale of 10 Cities

Here are California’s 10 largest cities by population as of Jan. 1, 1994, with the percentage change from the previous year:

CITY POPULATION % CHANGE Los Angeles 3,620,500 0.3% San Diego 1,184,800 1.2% San Jose 835,500 1.7% San Francisco 751,700 1.0% Long Beach 436,800 -0.3% Fresno 402,000 2.3% Sacramento 393,000 1.0% Oakland 384,100 0.6% Santa Ana 310,400 0.7% Anaheim 290,700 1.8%

Source: Department of Finance, demographic research unit