Californians Now Number More Than 38 Million

California grew by 332,000 people between July 1, 2012 and July 1, 2013 and now has more than 38.2 million residents, according to population estimates released December 12 by the Department of Finance.

It’s the biggest numeric gain and percentage gain – nearly 1 percent – since 2004.

Eighty percent of the increase comes from births. Immigration added 66,000 people, the department estimates.

Since the U.S. census in April 2010, California’s population has grown by more than 950,000 – principally from births of new residents outnumbering deaths.

California’s constitution requires the department to produce the estimates, which are used for budgeting and needs assessment by the state, counties, academic institutions and others.

Seven out of 10 Californians leave in these nine counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego and Santa Clara.

With a population of 10 million, Los Angels County has 26 percent of the state’s population.

San Diego at 3.2 million residents has 8.3 percent of the population. Orange with 3.1 million, Riverside, with 2.3 million residents and San Bernardino, 2.1 million, round out the top five population counties.

Ten rural counties saw deaths outnumber births: Amador, Calaveras, Lake, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Trinity and Tuolumne.

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