Op-Ed: Are Californians fleeing en masse to Texas? The reality is complicated
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The U.S. Census Bureau’s latest report, released Oct. 30, showed that the number of new arrivals to California, the nation’s fifth largest state by population, exceeded all expectations.
With all major news outlets and analysts having proclaimed that California’s population was in freefall, the Census Bureau’s report showed that, at the peak of summer, California’s population was 4.4 million, nearly double the Census Bureau’s previous estimate of 3.8 million in March. This summer, however, many of California’s residents appeared to be going elsewhere, with the Census Bureau reporting that from July 1 to the end of the year, the number of new arrivals to California has increased by nearly 50 percent.
One of those California residents is David Brown. Brown runs Brown Line Tours, a private bus company based in San Diego that has been bringing tourists to the Mojave Desert and to other scenic byways of the state for more than 25 years. Brown, who runs the business with his partner, Randy Jones, said he believes the number of California residents living in the state is on the rise.
“We’re seeing a lot more people,” Brown said. “The increase is mostly young people coming in for the summer.”
The state’s largest city, San Francisco, had an astounding 50,000 residents during the latest census, but by the census of this year, it had become home to just 28,769 residents—a drop of more than 14,000 residents.
The reason for the sharp drop in San Francisco is that the massive population of Silicon Valley has driven residents to the west of the bay. In July, the San Francisco-San Jose region held nearly 100,000 residents while Los Angeles, which also boasts the nation’s most expensive real estate, held 60,000 residents.
This year, the Census Bureau is projecting the U.S. population will grow by about 20 percent, as of the end of this year. Census Bureau analysts have said the biggest