More People Moving To Mother Lode But Overall Population Declines
Sonora, CA — In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, many urban areas in California saw more people move out than come in, while the Mother Lode witnessed the opposite trend.
Between July of 2019 to July of 2020, Tuolumne County had a net migration of 59 people, Calaveras County had 11 and Amador County had 63. The figure is the number of people who moved to the county minus the number who moved away. Large counties that saw a negative net migration included Los Angeles (74,072), Orange (17,239), Santa Clara (8,546), Monterey (4,787), Alameda (4,293), Santa Cruz (2,514) and Stanislaus (1,109).
Some other larger counties bucked the trend and saw a net migration increase, like San Francisco (322), Sacramento (6,770) and Fresno (1,022).
Statewide, 135,394 more people moved out of California than moved in.
However, the state’s overall population still increased because there were many more births than deaths. In July of last year there were 39,761,195 residents, and this July the number had increased to 39,782,419.
The Mother Lode counties, while having more people come then go, saw an overall decline due to more deaths than births, primarily due to an older population base.
Tuolumne County fell from 55,557 residents last year to 52,353 this year. There were 710 deaths and 447 births. Calaveras County’s population dropped from 44,402 to 44,286, Amador from 37,464 to 37,325 and Mariposa from 17,842 to 17,778.
The population figures were tabulated by the California Department of Finance.
