The state of California gained more than 100,000 residents last year according to new statewide numbers, but San Francisco is not part of that growth, having lost a little more than 3,000 residents.
We have largely reversed the “Everyone’s leaving San Francisco” narrative that took hold during the pandemic, though the latest data shows a slight but discouraging setback. The Chronicle reports that the California Department of Finance just released its annual state population estimates, which show that overall the state of California population grew by about 108,000 people in 2024. But not so in San Francisco, San Francisco lost about 3,000 residents last year, according to state data.
That leaves the current SF population as 842,000 people, or about 30,000 fewer than our pre-pandemic level. The loss of 3,000 residents represents about a 0.4% decline in 2024 in how many people live in San Francisco.
You can check out how this compares to California biggest cities in the graphic above. While 0.4% is hardly a significant drop, it is the largest percentage drop of any of the state’s ten largest cities. Oakland grew by 0.5%, LA grew by 0.4%, Fresno by 0.8%, and Bakersfield by 1.2%
San Francisco is still California’s fourth-largest city by a significant margin.
Most Bay Area counties gained population in 2024, with Napa the big winner at 0.5% growth. Alameda, Sonoma, and San Mateo counties also saw population growth by small tenths of one percentage point. Contra Costa, Santa Clara, and Solano counties were effectively unchanged, while Marin County also saw a slight population drop of 0.1% in 2024.
So not a great report for San Francisco is it tries to recover economically. But the future might look bright, albeit for very terrible reasons. Many experts say that climate change is likely to increase SF’s population, in no small part because we’re much less likely to have wildfires here.
Related: Unsheltered Homeless Population In SF Nearly Unchanged Since 2022, Overall Number Rises 7% [SFist]
Image: Joe Kukura, SFist
