Both Los Angeles County and the most rural parts of the state have lagged in population growth, so they now have less representation.Since the districts must be close to equal in population, shifts in representation have generally followed shifts in population. California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission has drawn new political districts based on the 2020 Census.Los Angeles County and rural areas have lost population and political representation. The median age in California is 37.3, compared to 38.7 for the entire country, according to the 2020 Census.
Yet California has the eighth-youngest population in the nation (Utah has the youngest).California’s population is aging along with the baby boom generation by 2030, about one in five Californians will be 65 or older.Over half (54%) of foreign-born Californians are US citizens, the largest share in over 40 years.Ĭalifornia is aging, but it is young compared to the rest of the country.According to the 2019 American Community Survey, 27% of Californians are foreign born-this share is larger than that of any other state (New Jersey is second with 23%) and more than double the share in the rest of the nation (12%).Over 10 million Californians are immigrants. Latinos surpassed whites as the state’s single largest ethnic group in 2014.No race or ethnic group constitutes a majority of California’s population: 39% of state residents are Latino, 35% are white, 15% are Asian American or Pacific Islander, 5% are Black, 4% are multiracial, and fewer than 1% are Native American or Alaska Natives, according to the 2020 Census.International migration is at its lowest level in at least 40 years, and the number of residents moving to other states is at its highest level since the mid-1990s.These trends in births and deaths mirror those in the rest of the nation. Moreover, birth rates have been declining for decades and reached record lows in the last two years. Most of the increase in deaths was due to the pandemic, according to the CDC.An increase in deaths, sharp declines in international migration, and a rise in residents moving to other states account for the losses. From January 1, 2020, to July 1, 2021, California’s population declined by almost 300,000, according to Department of Finance estimates.Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, California’s population has declined. This was slower than the rate of growth in the rest of the nation (6.8%), leading to the loss of a seat in the US House of Representatives for the first time in California’s history. From 2010 to 2020, California’s population grew by 5.8% (or 2.4 million), according to decennial census counts.Since 2000, California has experienced its slowest rates of growth ever recorded.California’s population more than tripled in the last half of the 20th century (reaching 37 million by 2000), and its growth rate was much higher than that of the rest of the United States. In 1900, California was home to fewer than 2 million people by 1950 the population had reached 10 million.