SACRAMENTO, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- California's Department of Finance says the state's population is growing at a slower rate because of an exodus of state residents.
The department said that between July 2008 and July 2009, the population of California only grew by 353,000 people. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday that increase, which brought the state's population to 38.4 million, was the lowest on record since the period of 1994-1996.
The department said during the same time period, nearly 142,000 more people moved from California to other states than the number of individuals moving from other states to the Golden State.
The Chronicle said the difference in migration figures follows a trend taking place in California since 2005.
Demographer Hans Johnson of the Public Policy Institute of California said he was not surprised by the state's slowing population growth.
"Most people who move to or from California do so for economic reasons, specifically jobs. Our unemployment rate is significantly higher than the rest of the country and when that happens, California tends to send more migrants to other states than we receive," he said.
California's jobless rate was 12.3 percent in November, compared with a national rate of about 10 percent.
