As population growth leveled off statewide in the past couple of
years, the exact opposite has happened in Santa Clara County.
As population growth leveled off statewide in the past couple of years, the exact opposite has happened in Santa Clara County.
The county’s population grew by 26,791 residents in 2006 and 29,904 in 2007, according to population estimates released by the state Department of Finance last week, making it the fourth fastest growing county statewide, behind only Riverside, Los Angeles and San Diego counties. The five counties posted the highest numeric population gains and account for nearly half of the state’s growth, according to the data.
While growth in Riverside was primarily due to new residents from within the U.S., including other counties within the state, growth in the others, including Santa Clara County, was in large part due to natural increase through births.
California’s population grew to 37.8 million as of July 1, which includes 438,000 new residents during the 2006-’07 fiscal year. The data shows a continued pattern of slower growth rates each year since the 2 percent growth in 2000.
The county’s 1.67 percent overall population growth rate in 2007 exceeded the state’s growth rate of 1.17 percent. The county’s total population in 2007 was estimated to be 1.82 million people. Of the new residents, 12,867 were legal foreign immigrants. Only 856 people moved out of the county to other parts of the country, compared to 2,951 in 2006.
The Department of Finance used the 2000 census data and compiled birth and death records, school enrollment and other data to come up with population estimates for years 2000-2007.
“The big story about (the county’s) population is that for the first three years you were losing people to other counties or other states, and that’s slowed down,” said Linda Gage, chief of the department’s demographic research unit.
The decrease in the county’s population was prompted by the tech downturn that saw thousands leave for other parts of the country as cost of living skyrocketed, and the new data suggests that trend is reversing, said Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage (no relation to Linda Gage).
“Everybody knows that you can’t continue to have great years, you’re going to have ups and downs,” said Don Gage. “This valley is probably some of the best weather in the world. You got Silicon Valley which is a magnet for well-paying jobs, why wouldn’t people want to come here?”
According to figures released last May, Morgan Hill’s population grew by 3.1 percent in 2006, from 37,256 to 38,418, making it the county’s top gainer percentage-wise.
Gilroy’s 1.9 percent growth rate was the fourth-highest among the county’s 15 cities, with the city’s population hitting 49,649 in 2006.
In April of this year, Gilroy, had a population of 49,948 residents, leaving it just shy of the 50,000 mark, according to the California Department of Finance.
In early May, the Department of Finance will release population estimates for each city, Linda Gage said.
“Natural increase remains a continuing source of the state’s growth this decade,” according to a Department of Finance news release, while net migration contributed over 111,000 new residents, or 25 percent, of the growth.
In 2006-07, the state gained 200,000 new foreign immigrants and, similar to the last two years, experienced a modest loss of 89,000 persons to other states, according to the release.
