States with Democratic leaders have the dubious honor of being overwhelmingly represented amongst the 18 states that saw population drops in 2022. In fact, New York and California topped the ranking of states with the biggest decreases since 2020. This trend is contrary to what happened in the rest of the U.S., where, according to Census Bureau data, the total population grew by 1,256,003 (0.4%) during the past year.
California remains the most populous state in the U.S., but it has lost more than half a million residents in the past two years. According to the Census, the Golden State had a population of 39,029,342 as of July 1, 2022. A year earlier, it had about 120,000 more citizens (39,142,991). The drop was even more pronounced between 2020 and 2021, during which time California lost almost 400,000 residents (39,538,245).
Two years losing population
The drop in population in New York is even more pronounced, and it has caused the state to drop below 20 million residents. Since 2020, the state has lost 524,079 inhabitants. On April 1, 2020, New York had 20,201,230 residents. That figure declined to 19,857,492 by July 1, 2021, then plunged further to 19,677,151 by July 1, 2022.
In light of Census Bureau statistics, the fact that both states have Democratic Party leadership does not seem coincidental. According to the report, 12 of the 18 states whose population declined over the past year have Democratic governors. The states with the largest population decreases in terms of percentage were New York (0.9%) and Illinois (0.8%).
