Demographics of California
is the most populous U.S. state, with an estimated population of 38.9 million as of 2023. The state has people from a wide variety of ethnic, racial, national, and religious backgrounds.
Population
California is the most populated sub-national entity in North America. If it were an independent country, California would rank 38th in population in the world. Until recently, it had a larger population than Canada. Its population is one third larger than that of the next most populous state, Texas. California surpassed New York to become the most populous state in 1962. California's population growth has slowed dramatically in the 21st century. In 2010, the state's five most populous counties were Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino, with Riverside County having the largest percentage increase in population. The largest metro areas in California, as of 2010, are Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, the Inland Empire, and Sacramento. From 2006 until 2016, the state lost a net population of about 1 million people from emigration to other states, yet the population of the state continued to grow due to immigration from overseas and more births than deaths.As of 2006, California had an estimated population of 37,172,015, more than 12 percent of the US population. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 1,557,112 people and an increase due to net migration of 751,419 people. Immigration resulted in a net increase of 1,415,879 people, and migration from within the US resulted in a net decrease of 564,100 people. California is the 13th fastest-growing state. As of 2023, the total fertility rate was 1.52 which is on par with Canada.
The center of population of California is located at in Kern County, near the town of Shafter.
No single ethnic group forms a majority of California's population, making the state a minority-majority state. Hispanics are the largest single ethnic group in the state. Spanish is the state's second most widely spoken language. Areas with especially large Spanish speaking populations include the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the California-Mexico border counties of San Diego and Imperial, and the San Joaquin Valley. Nearly 43% of Californian residents speak a language other than English at home, a proportion far higher than any other state.
In 2011, there were an estimated 2.6 million undocumented immigrants residing in California. California is home to almost 25% of the country's undocumented population, making up 6% of California's residents overall. Two-thirds of California's undocumented population have lived in the state for more than 10 years.
About 52% of California's public school students in the 2011–2012 school year identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino and 26% as non-Hispanic Caucasian. The following ethnic groups made up the rest of the statewide public school student body: Asians, African Americans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders. Students of mixed race made up about 2% of the public schools. Hispanics have made up the majority of the state's public schools since 2010. Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest school district in California and second largest in the nation, is 73% Hispanic, 10% African American, 9% non-Hispanic Caucasian, 6% Asian, 0.5% Native American, and 0.4% Pacific Islander.
The US Census Bureau announced a paltry population growth for the state, resulting in its first loss of a congressional seat. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, California's population fell for the first time in history. The state's population declined again in 2021 and 2022. The main causes of the decline are: a high mortality rate, a declining natality, a fall in international migration and emigration to other states. The latter phenomenon is sometimes called California exodus. Population loss was noticed in 34 out of 58 counties in the state between January 2020 and July 2022. According to the California Department of Finance, the state's population will stay constant at around 39.5 million until 2060. In 2020–2021, California saw an annual loss of 398,795 people. Between 2021 and 2022, there was a lower loss in population at 113,649 people. The slowing down of population loss as seen in 2022 would continue into 2023 seeing a loss of 75,423 people making it a 0.2% population loss from the previous year as compared to 2022 having a 0.3% loss in 2023. In the 2024 population estimate from the US Census Bureau the population of California grew by 232,570 people.
Net domestic migration
2020 US census
According to the 2020 US census, California's population was 34.7% Non-Hispanic White, 5.4% Non-Hispanic African American, 0.4% Non-Hispanic Native American, 15.1% Non-Hispanic Asian, 0.4% Non-Hispanic Pacific Islander, 4.1% Non-Hispanic Multiracial, and 39.4% Hispanic or Latino of any race. Hispanics are the largest racial/ethnic group in California. Non-Hispanic Whites have decreased from about 76.3% of the state's population in 1970 to 33.7% in 2022. California is the second-most racially diverse state in the US, after Hawaii. The population of minorities in the US accounted for 139.8 million out of 331.5 million residents in 2020, with 25.8 million, or 18.5% of the total minority population, living in California. While New Mexico has a higher percentages of Hispanics, California has the highest total number of Hispanics of any US state, at over 15 million.California has the highest number and second highest percentage of Asian Americans by state, with 15.5% of the population identifying as Asian alone, and 18.4% identifying as Asian alone or in combination. Only Hawaii has a higher Asian American percentage than California. The highest percent of Asians in California is found in the San Francisco Bay area, where they make up 30% of the total population.
The largest named ancestries in California are Mexican, German, British, Irish, Chinese, and Filipino. There are over 65 other ethnicities with sizable populations in California, including African Americans, Albanians, Arabs, Armenians, Australians, Brazilians, Canadians, Croatians, Guatemalans, Haitians, Iranians/Persians, Italians, Japanese, Koreans, Portuguese, Russians, Salvadorans, Serbians, Somalis, and Vietnamese. Both the Los Angeles and San Francisco metro areas have large numbers of residents with African-American, British, Central American, Chinese, Filipino, French, German, Indian, Iranian/Persian, Italian, Mexican, Russian, Scandinavian, and Vietnamese ancestry.
California has the largest total population of non-Hispanic white Americans in the US, totaling over 13.7 million as of the 2020 census, although the share of non-Hispanic whites as a percent of the population, at 34.7%, is the second lowest in the country, after Hawaii. The state has the fifth largest population of African Americans in the US, an estimated 2.1 million residents. California's Asian population is estimated at 7.0 million, almost 30% of the nation's estimated 24 million Asian Americans. California's Native American population of 156,085 is the 4th-largest of any state, behind Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico.
Since the 2000 US census, California has been known as the second state in US history to become majority minority, and since 2014, the second state, after New Mexico, to have a Latino plurality. Some projections have showed the possibility of Latinos becoming a majority in the mid 21st century.
2022 American Community Survey one-year estimates
According to 2022 US Census Bureau one-year estimates, California's population by race was 38.9% White, 15.5% Asian, 19.5% Other Race, 5.4% Black or African American, 1.3% Native American or Alaskan Native, 0.4% Pacific Islander, and 19.0% Mixed race or Multiracial.If Hispanics are treated as if a separate race and removed from the racial categories, the breakout is 33.7% Non-Hispanic White, 15.3% Non-Hispanic Asian, 0.6% Non-Hispanic Other Race, 5.2% Non-Hispanic Black, 0.3% Non-Hispanic Native American or Alaskan Native, 0.4% Non-Hispanic Pacific Islander, 4.1% Non-Hispanic Multiracial, and 40.3% Hispanic-Latino.
Latinos in California primarily identify as Other Race or Multiracial, making up the vast majority of individuals in the state who identify as 'some other race'. Smaller amounts of Hispanics identify as white, American Indian and Alaskan Native, Asian, or Hawaiian and Pacific Islander.
| Racial or Ethnic group | 1850 | 1860 | 1870 | 1880 | 1890 | 1900 | 1910 | 1920 | 1930 | 1940 | 1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | 2000 | 2010 | 2020 |
| White | 99.0% | 85.0% | 89.1% | 88.7% | 91.6% | 94.5% | 95.0% | 95.3% | 95.3% | 95.5% | 93.7% | 92.0% | 89.0% | 76.2% | 69.0% | 59.5% | 57.6% | 41.2% |
| Black | 1.0% | 1.1% | 0.8% | 0.7% | 0.9% | 0.7% | 0.9% | 1.1% | 1.4% | 1.8% | 4.4% | 5.6% | 7.0% | 7.7% | 7.4% | 6.7% | 6.2% | 5.7% |
| Asian | – | 9.2% | 8.8% | 8.7% | 6.1% | 3.8% | 3.4% | 3.1% | 3.0% | 2.4% | 1.7% | 2.0% | 2.8% | 5.3% | 9.6% | 10.9% | 13.0% | 15.5% |
| Pacific Islander | – | 9.2% | 8.8% | 8.7% | 6.1% | 3.8% | 3.4% | 3.1% | 3.0% | 2.4% | 1.7% | 2.0% | 2.8% | 5.3% | 9.6% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| Native American | ' | 4.7%' | 1.3%' | 1.9%' | 1.4%' | 1.0% | 0.7% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.9% | 0.8% | 1.0% | 1.0% | 1.6% |
| Other race | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0.7% | 10.0% | 13.2% | 16.8% | 17.0% | 21.2% |
| Multiracial | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4.7% | 4.9% | 14.6% |
| Hispanic | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2.1% | 3.7% | 6.8% | 6.0% | 7.2% | 9.1% | 13.7% | 19.2% | 25.8% | 32.4% | 37.6% | 39.4% |
| Non-Hispanic White | 92.9% | 91.6% | 88.5% | 89.5% | 86.5% | 82.9% | 77.5% | 66.7% | 57.2% | 46.7% | 40.1% | 34.7% | ||||||
| Black | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 6.8% | 7.5% | 7.0% | 6.4% | 5.8% | 5.4% |
| Asian | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2.7% | 5.0% | 9.1% | 10.8% | 12.8% | 15.2% |
| Pacific Islander | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2.7% | 5.0% | 9.1% | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| Native American | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0.4% | 0.7% | 0.6% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| Other | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 0.6% | 1.0% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.6% |
| Multiracial | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2.7% | 2.6% | 4.1% |
| Total Population | 92,597' | 379,994 | 560,247 |