California Population Growing Slightly Faster Than U.S.

California added 356,000 new residents during 2013, for a growth rate of just under one percent - a rate that appears to be accelerating ever so slightly.

California’s 0.9 percent growth rate from 2013 to 2014 is 0.1 percent higher than the year before, and 0.3 percent higher than the year before that.  In actual numbers, the state essentially added a city the size of Bakersfield.

It’s often said that California’s population is moving inland – away from the coast.  But according to this latest state Department of Finance report, California’s fastest-growing region isn’t the Central Valley or Inland Empire; it’s the Bay Area, which has three of the five fastest-growing counties.

Los Angeles remains the largest city, with just under four million people, while San Jose joined San Diego to give California three cities with populations over one million.

Numbers for other states from the same time frame aren’t available, but the closest apples-to-oranges comparison using U.S. Census data shows California growing slightly faster than the nation as a whole.