Two Bay Area counties were among the 10 in the nation that lost the greatest percentage of their population in the first 15 months of the pandemic, according to new numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
San Francisco saw a drop of 6.7% and San Mateo 3.5% from April 2020 to July 2021. That put them at No. 2 and No. 5 on the list, which was led by New York County (down 6.9%).
Twenty-five of California’s 58 counties saw population decreases in that 15-month period. The state’s greatest increase was San Benito County, up 3.8%.
Overall, California saw a 0.8% drop, a loss of just more than 300,000 residents. The “net migration” loss of 415,522 residents to other states or countries was offset by a gain of 115,215 in “natural change” — births minus deaths.
The chart below shows the net migration and natural change numbers for the nine Bay Area counties.
Source: www.mercurynews.com