California’s population has now dropped for the third year in a row.
Most California counties’ population shrank in 2022, including every county on the state’s coastline.
And, who’s leaving?
The 148,000 residents who left San Francisco by the time they filed tax returns in 2020 and 2021 collectively made about $22.7 billion, for an average annual income of about $153,000.
That’s a higher average than the people who moved to San Francisco during that period. Those roughly 77,000 residents were parts of households that made about $7.9 billion, or an average of $103,000 a person.
People always want to talk about people leaving California. LOL the state with the best weather, the best economy, and the most diverse ecosystem. You can go to the ocean, to the mojave desert, to the Sierra mountains. Name another state that is like California, and it’s why so many people want to be there. The ones that leave and complain, the true reason they go, is because they do not have the money to afford to live there.
LOL. Yet for some reason California lost a seat in the House after the last census. Also as noted in the OP: “And in a major shift, California is now losing higher-income residents and people with a college degree to other states.”
“California is a Garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see
But believe it or not, you won’t find it so hot
If you ain’t got the do, re, mi”
– Woody Guthrie
LOL that is a rounding error. They have 52 house of representatives. You still don’t understand Doctor. They have the biggest economy of any State. You say they are now losing higher income residents just because a few leave, it’s the far rights hope that everyone will leave. Now here is the biggest joke, when those people leave they go to other states and if they are red states those people start crying about the people changing their culture. You say they are leaving the state in droves, I say they are repopulating other states to turn them blue.
I’ve been hearing the certain and near death of California ever since I got out of college in 1989. That state has too much going for it. The only thing keeping me from moving there is the cost of housing. That’s it. Every time I visit the place I love it.
Exactly BJ, everyone loves it when they go there, even the ones complaining. Nothing like sitting on the beach in Carlsbad for a nice vacation. I have been all over the state and yes there are some real rough spots like Bakersfield, the murder capital of the world, where Representative McCarthy comes from. But there are some great places to vacation too.
Perhaps you should look up the definition of “step-wise degradation”, wherein negative changes, when looked at individually, appear small, but over time result in quite significant consequences.
You know, it is a wonderful natural environment. And yet people are still leaving. That suggests something is not, shall we say, optimal with the human/built environment.
Exactly Murph and trying to deduce that California is on the way down because a few people leave “now” is a fool’s errand, because tomorrow they all could move back. But it seems that for years the far right has been gloating on the demise of California when it just keeps chugging along. I really don’t understand though why anyone would find joy in any of the United States failing or any of our cities failing, the only thing I can think it can be is envy of someone else doing better.
Well, people always talk about how wonderful the weather is* or the mountains, etc. They seldom seem to talk about what is dysfunctional that would make people want to move away from a Garden of Eden.
*Except when it’s not, e.g., floods, droughts, wildfires.
Enjoy the 120 degree Summers, and pray to the universe that climate change isn’t a thing (whether caused by man or not) as things won’t go well if it starts hitting 130’s in the near future.
Greater Phoenix area / Maricopa County is great to visit and to live in for 6 months out of the year (Oct - Mar ideally) but you may want to have a Summer home elsewhere, and that means paying for 2 houses.
I think I will retire off the Great Lakes further north one day, or New Zealand and maybe a Winter home in a warmer state will be in the cards.
And what does the loss of a House seat tell you, other than relative population loss?
I posted some time ago that, in 1980, Michigan had 19 seats in the House. Now it has 13. Yet, for that 40 year span, the Shiny faction had gerrymandered it’s way into solid control of the legislature, and held the Gov’s office half the time. The state throws vast amounts of money at the “JCs”, at everyone else’s expense: makes the state a regional trash and toxic waste destination with a stupid low tip fee, virtually gives away ground water to bottling companies, while defunding education, infrastructure, and mental health, while raising taxes on the poor and retirees, to pay for more tax cuts for the “JCs”. Supply siders have been telling us, for all of that 40 years, that policies like that would make the state a paradise, Why are people leaving the state?
I don’t know how you came up with “seldom talk about.” That factor virtually everyone mentions when leaving is that California is a very high cost of living state, so they can have a higher quality lifestyle in other locations. During the pandemic a friend of mine at Google moved from San Jose to Salt Lake City and cut her housing costs by about half. She had to accept a pay cut to stay in SLC permanently, but she was still much better financially off.
Speaking of Gardens of Eden, Hawaii has been losing population for seven years. Same reason. Cost of living. The state most Hawaii residents move to? California.
True there are things about California that are not ideal. But why do people make it sound like it is the end of the world? Back in the 1980’s they had stories that everyone was leaving California. But it was just an ebb and flow. But if I was to bet I would always bet on California being at the top. There is just to much innovation and entrepreneurs for them to lose.
That is also true of New Jersey. It is one of our best kept secrets.
If we had wanted you to get off the turnpike, we would have given directions. Otherwise, its probably hopeless. You will get lost. We don’t believe in signs. Or we put them in odd places just to make it interesting for visitors. They are unwelcome!!!
Reminds me of one of our local coastal towns, Bolinas, state puts up direction signage, natives make them disappear, over and over… West Marin is a world of its own, and they like to keep it that way…
OTOH, all those folks leaving? No problem, there’s a line of folks waiting, often bidding up on the place they are leaving… Some of us, however, have roots, stay put, deal with it as it comes…
Husband and I made our lives and fortunes in California. We moved to Mexico for the far far far far…far far lower cost of living. Just our net gain on our house was enough to pay for our home and ten years of living expenses in Mexico.
People have been dumping on California and predicting catastrophe ever since the gold rush.
This thread is very very tired recirculated water.
