population growth california
For more than a century, California grew quickly nearly every year, earning a reputation as one of America's most desirable places to live. From 1900 to 2004, the average annual population growth in the state was about 3 percent, more than double the national average. Only three times during that 100-year period did California's population fail to grow by at least 1 percent. That has changed. Last year marked the 11th in a row in which California's population grew by less than 1 percent, according to a Sacramento Bee review of data from the state Department of Finance.