New population figures are in from UC Berkeley’s California Policy Lab. They show warnings about a mass exodus from California during the coronavirus pandemic were mostly hollow.
“Exits from California in 2020 largely mirrored historical patterns” last year, according to the researchers.
The pandemic did affect internal migration, however. San Francisco was most heavily impacted.
“Net exits from San Francisco from the end of March to the end of the year increased 649% as compared to the same period in 2019, from 5,200 net exits to 38,800,” according to the Policy Lab.
“Counties in the Sierra Nevada mountains and other parts of northern California saw huge increases in entrances by former Bay Area residents, with 50% and in some cases 100%+ more in-migrants in 2020 as compared to 2019.”
Read the study here.