California sees large population increase in 2024 — nearly returning to pre-pandemic level

California’s population grew this year by nearly a quarter of a million residents, bouncing back close to the record-high population levels the Golden State had reached before the pandemic, but growing more slowly than the country as a whole and other large states in the South, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday.

“As the nation’s population surpasses 340 million, this is the fastest annual population growth the nation has seen since 2001,” the U.S. Census Bureau wrote in a statement Thursday.