The state of California lost its population in 2021 for the second consecutive year. If this had happened only once, it could be shrugged off as an anomaly, but not for two years in a row.
What are people supposed to do? They tried to recall Governor Newsom and it failed. If you want change that badly, your last option is to vote with your feet.
And that’s just what people are doing.
Landon Mion reports at FOX Business:
California saw population shrink again during pandemic’s 2nd yearCalifornia’s population decreased by more than 100,000 people in 2021, the second consecutive year the state has seen a population decline, officials announced Monday.The state attributes its population drop off to reduced births and immigration, and an increase in deaths and people moving to other states.Despite the decline, California remains the most populous state in the country with an estimated 39 million residents. In comparison, second-place Texas is home to 29.5 million people.California lost 117,552 people between Jan. 1, 2021 and Jan. 1, 2022, according to the state’s Department of Finance, bringing its population back to where it was in 2016.And while the state has reported population declines during the first and second year of the pandemic, California had seen its population growth wane even before COVID-19 due to older generations aging, younger generations producing fewer children and more residents leaving for other states.
What exactly is driving this movement out of the Golden State?
Jazz Shaw of Hot Air offers some answers:
COVID was clearly a factor, with the decrease being lower in 2021 (after the vaccines were becoming widely available) than in 2020 when hospitalizations and deaths were through the roof. But emigration was also listed as a root cause. More legally registered residents moved away than moved to the state. California is an extremely expensive place to live and modest average wage increases do not make up for that. The crime rates are obviously another factor. A lot of people have thrown up their hands and just given up on “California Dreaming.” (There’s an obscure musical reference for our older readers.)Getting back to the immigration versus emigration question, there is almost certainly some missing data in this analysis. Yes, a lot of legal residents left voluntarily. But illegal aliens resumed flowing into the state in vast numbers in 2021 after seeing a significant drop in 2020 because of pandemic travel restrictions and closed borders. It’s possible that the total loss isn’t quite as great as these numbers suggest, but that’s only because we can’t track accurate numbers of how many illegal aliens entered the state last year and how many of those remained and are still living there today.
My guess would be a combination of taxes, crime, and strict COVID policies.
People will put up with one of those things, maybe even two, but as they say in baseball, three strikes and you’re out.
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