California’s big cities are slowly bouncing back, new population data show
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California’s population increased for the second consecutive year, with much of the growth coming to the state’s biggest cities, according to new data from the state Department of Finance released Thursday.
The latest numbers for calendar year 2024 confirm the end of the so-called California exodus that saw the Golden State’s population shrink for the first time in decades.
Seven of the state’s 10 largest cities recorded population growth as they bounced back from the shrinking seen earlier in the pandemic, which hit hardest in most of the state’s urban centers.
By the end of 2024, the state’s population nearly eclipsed its pre-pandemic peak, but was still around 9,000 people short of the high-water mark from April 2020, reflecting slow growth in the years since then.
From April 2020 to January 2022, the state lost some 360,000 residents, according to data from the California Department of Finance. California added about 108,000 people in 2024 after adding nearly 200,000 in 2023. If growth continues, the state should eclipse its pre-pandemic population figure in 2025.
“People from across the nation and the globe are coming to the Golden State to pursue the California Dream, where rights are protected and people are respected,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “As the fourth largest economy in the world — from the Inland Empire to the Bay Area — regions throughout California are growing, strengthening local communities and boosting our state’s future.”
“We’ll continue to cut tape, invest in people, and seek real results from government to ensure we build on this momentum — all of which are at risk with the extreme and uncertain tariffs,” Newsom said.
The biggest population winners were Bakersfield, which grew by 1.2% in 2024, and San Diego, which grew by 1%. Los Angeles grew by 0.4%.
Changes to our immigration system on multiple levels — from student and work visas to the southern border — may accelerate the trend of most immigrants to California coming from India and China.
In the Bay Area, San José and San Francisco saw their populations contract slightly — each by less than half a percentage point. Anaheim was among the state’s three major cities to lose people in 2024.
For the record:
6:12 p.m. May 4, 2025An earlier version of this article said Anaheim was among the state’s three major cities to lose people in 2023. The year was 2024.
Natural increase, or the difference between births and deaths, was responsible for a gain of 114,805 people in 2024, but the state’s population increased by only 108,000 overall. The difference is explained by net migration out of California of around 7,000 people.
Over the last few years, California has recorded more people leaving for other states such as Texas and Arizona than it gains from internal migration. International immigrants, who now mostly come from Asia, bolster the state’s population against the loss from those who leave for other states.
On the housing front, the state’s slow growth continued: Housing grew at 0.84% in 2024, a similar figure to 2023, which lagged many other states. One in five new homes built in 2024 within California were Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs.
ADU production has increased by over 10% in each of the last two years, and with each passing year ADUs constitute a larger fraction of new housing built in the state.
The population growth is a welcome development but is still smaller in magnitude than California’s pre-pandemic history of growth, said Dowell Myers, a professor of policy, planning and demography at USC.
“It’s very small movement, but it’s two years in a row on the upswing. That’s good,” he said.
A bright spot in the data is the housing numbers, he said. The state’s housing stock grew more than its population, which is “a step in the right direction” as “we’re losing people because they can’t find enough housing.”
Still, over the years, Californians have “accumulated a huge housing deficit and are catching up,” as an aging population typically requires more housing, Myers said.
“It’s a very big group that was grossly under-planned for,” according to Myers. After the housing bubble crash in 2008, a tight credit market made it difficult for home builders and buyers to get loans, and “the housing recovery was stalled all the way until 2017.”
The “failure to recognize demographic changes was brutal,” and cost a generation access to affordable housing, Myers said.
The whole nation faces a housing shortage, but Californians have been hit particularly hard, he said.
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