Demographics of California
Population pyramid of California in 2019
Population	38,940,231 (2023)[1]

California is the most populated U.S. state, with a population of 39.54 million as of 2024. It 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. It has a larger population than Australia.^[6] Its population is one third larger than that of the next most populous state, Texas.^[7] California surpassed New York to become the most populous state in 1962.^[8] California's population growth has slowed dramatically in the 21st century.^[9][10] In 2010, the state's five most populous counties were Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties, with Riverside County having the largest percentage increase in population.^[11] The largest metro areas in California, as of 2010, are Los Angeles, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, San Diego, Riverside-San Bernardino, and Sacramento.^[12] From 2006 until 2016, the state lost a net population of about 1 million people from emigration to other states,^[13] yet the population of the state continued to grow due to immigration from overseas and more births than deaths.^[14]

As of 2006, California had an estimated population of 37,172,015, more than 12 percent of the U.S. population. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 1,557,112 people (i.e., 2,781,539 births minus 1,224,427 deaths) 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 U.S. 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.^[15]

The center of population of California is located at 35°27′49″N 119°19′31″W / 35.463595°N 119.325359°W / 35.463595; -119.325359 in Kern County, near the town of Shafter.^[16]

No single ethnic group forms a majority of California's population, making the state a minority-majority state. Hispanics (of any race) are the largest single ethnic group in the state.^[17] 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.^[18]

In 2011, there were an estimated 2.6 million undocumented immigrants residing in California.^[19] 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.^[20]

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 (11%), African Americans (7%), Native Americans (0.7%), and Pacific Islanders (0.6%). 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.^[21]

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, California's population fell for the first time in history, resulting in its first loss of a congressional seat.^[22] The state's population declined again in 2021 and 2022.^[23] The main causes of the decline are: a high mortality rate, a declining natality, a fall in international migration and emigration to other states.^[23] The latter phenomenon is sometimes called California exodus.^[24] Population loss was noticed in 34 out of 58 counties in the state between January 2020 and July 2022.^[25] According to the California Department of Finance, the state's population will stay constant at around 39.5 million until 2060.^[26][27] In 2020-2021 California saw an annual loss of 398,795 people while between 2021-2022 there was a lower loss in population at 113,649 people.^[25] 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.^[28]

Net domestic migration

Racial/ethnic makeup

According to the 2020 U.S. census, California's population was 34.7% Non-Hispanic White, 5.7% African American, 1.5% Native American, 16.1% Asian, 0.4% Pacific Islander, 13% Two or more races, and 39.4% Hispanic or Latino of any race.^[34] Hispanics are the largest racial/ethnic group in California. Non-Hispanic Whites have decreased from about 76.3 – 78% of the state's population in 1970^[35] to 36.6% in 2018.^[33] While the population of minorities accounts for 100.7 million of 300 million U.S. residents, 20% of the national total live in California (2008).^[36][37]

According to 2018 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, California's population was 59.5% White (36.6% Non-Hispanic White), 14.7% Asian, 13.8% Some Other Race, 5.8% Black or African American, 0.8% Native American and Alaskan Native, 0.4% Pacific Islander, and 5.1% from two or more races.^[33] with others identifying as Some Other Race (34.4%), Multiracial (5.1%), Black (0.7%), American Indian and Alaskan Native (1.1%), Asian (0.5%), and Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (0.1%).^[33] By ethnicity, 39.3% of the total population is Hispanic-Latino (of any race) and 60.7% is Non-Hispanic (of any race).^[33]

California has the highest number, and second highest percentage, of Asian Americans by state. Only Hawaii has a higher Asian American percentage than California. While New Mexico and Texas have higher percentages of Hispanics, California has the highest total number of Hispanics of any U.S. state. Hispanics are the largest single ethnic group in the state.^[38]

The largest named ancestries in California are Mexican (25%), German (9%), Irish (7.7%), English (7.4%), and Italian (5.8%);^{[citation needed]} there are 65 other ethnicities with sizable populations in California including Arabs, Albanians, Australians, Brazilians,^[39] Canadians, Haitians, Iranians/Persians, and Somalis as examples. Both Los Angeles and San Francisco have large numbers of residents with English, French, Italian, Iranian/Persian,^[40] German, Russian, and Scandinavian ancestry.^[41]

California has the largest population of White Americans in the U.S., totaling 21,453,934 residents as of the 2010 census. The state has the fifth largest population of African Americans in the U.S., an estimated 2,299,072 residents. California's Asian population is estimated at 4.9 million, approximately one-third of the nation's estimated 15 million Asian Americans. California's Native American population of 285,512 is the third-largest of any state, behind Arizona and Oklahoma.^[42]

Since the 2000 U.S. census, California has been known as the second state in U.S. history (after Hawaii since its statehood in 1959) to have a non-White majority when excluding Hispanic Whites, and since 2014, the first state to have a Latino plurality surpass other racial/ethnic groups. The media discussed the possibility of Latinos becoming a majority in the 21st century,^[43] for the first time since statehood (1850) when massive immigration of Anglo-Americans during the California Gold Rush of 1848–1849 reduced Spanish speakers to 20% of the population.