Tens of thousands of residents are leaving Los Angeles County, highlighting ongoing concerns about the region’s economic outlook and population trends under the leadership of Gov. Gavin Newsom and a supermajority of Democrats in the state legislature and LA County.
The county experienced the largest population decline in the nation between July 2024 and July 2025, according to new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Data released March 26 shows that approximately 54,000 residents moved out of the county during that one year, continuing a multi-year pattern of population decline in the nation’s most populous county, the New York Post reported.
The population of Los Angeles County has declined from more than 10 million residents in 2020 to just under 9.7 million, according to reporting by KTLA.
While the number of departures is significant, analysts say a key factor is that fewer new residents are moving in to offset those losses. Nearby regions have seen gains over the same period, with Riverside and San Bernardino counties adding more than 21,000 residents combined, while the Las Vegas metropolitan area recorded an increase of more than 20,000.
Despite the decline, Los Angeles County remains the most populous county in the United States, with nearly twice the population of Cook County, the second largest, The Post noted.
The trend extends beyond Los Angeles, as population declines have become more widespread across California. Analysts point to multiple factors, including a slowdown in immigration, as contributing to the broader shift.
The San Diego Union-Tribune’s separate reporting found that San Diego County’s population declined by more than 5,000 residents in 2025, reversing gains from the previous year, citing the same U.S. Census Bureau data.
Analysts attributed the shift primarily to a significant slowdown in international migration. Census estimates indicate that foreign arrivals into the region fell by roughly 65 percent year over year, one of the steepest declines in more than a decade.
The decline coincides with federal immigration policy changes implemented in early 2025, as the Trump administration moved rapidly to take control of the U.S.-Mexico border after four years of open border policies under the Biden-Harris administration.
Nationwide, data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows immigration slowed across most U.S. counties last year. Of the more than 2,000 counties that recorded population growth the year prior, nearly 80 percent saw that expansion weaken or reverse in 2025.
California was among the states most affected. All 58 counties reported declines in foreign immigration, and 30 counties experienced overall population losses—up from 18 counties the previous year, said The Post.
Demographers say the trend could have broader implications. For years, immigration helped offset declining birth rates and an aging population, particularly in high-cost regions such as coastal California, the outlet added.
“When you pull back that inflow, the underlying weaknesses become more visible,” longtime University of Southern California demographer Dowell Myers told the Union-Tribune.
Newsom, who is widely expected to launch a bid for the presidency in 2028, will have to deal with questions about Democratic policies that his likely opponent, Vice President JD Vance, will raise, which are causing a dramatic outflow of residents from the state.
The governor often touts California’s economy as one of the largest in the world, which is true. Still, under his watch, homelessness has dramatically increased while rents, housing, and other cost factors to businesses and residents have skyrocketed as well.
Gas prices are up all across the country due to the Iran war, but while they were always high in California, they have shot upward in recent weeks.
“These new figures come amid a broader trend of population decline in California,” The Post reported. “Between 2010 and 2024, nearly 10 million people left the state, primarily driven by high living costs and housing affordability challenges, resulting in a net loss of more than 250,000 residents per year in recent years, according to the California Institute for Public Policy.”
