A surprising thing has been revealed by researchers regarding a trend in California migration. It turns out that the populations of inland counties are growing faster than that of urban coastal counties such as San Joaquin and Sacramento. Around 2014, Phuong Nguyen, who is a research specialist at the California Department of Finance, began noticing the influx of Californians to inland regions. After Nguyen’s discovery, the Department of Finance continued tracking the data into 2016 and 2017 and discovered the growth of California regions located further away from the Pacific Ocean persisted. Nguyen stated,
We were surprised at that. I would say there is a Bay Area exodus. The Bay Area is very congested and housing is not growing fast.
Historically, California’s coastal regions have drawn in-state migrants who leave their hometowns in search of employment opportunity and urban environments. Nguyen believes that cities such as Sacramento are attractive to Californians on the move because of the region’s thriving job market and ample supply of affordable housing. In 2017, Sacramento saw a net domestic migration increase of 45 percent (1,466 people) in the number of people that migrated there compared to 2016. We will have to see if this migration trend in California continues this year.
