The much-hyped pandemic exodus has already been disproven, but data from the California Policy Lab does show sizable moves out of the Golden State’s major cities and into surrounding suburbs.
As covered in the New York Times, Los Angeles saw some 126,679 residents leave the city proper in the last quarter of 2020. San Diego saw a drop of 49,928 residents, while San Francisco saw 35,855 residents leave the city in the final quarter of 2020—a loss that’s 61 percent higher than the same period of 2019.
But those leaving L.A. and S.F. didn’t go far!
Of those who left Los Angeles, 30 percent headed to San Bernardino County, while another 17 percent went to Orange County. Nearly 17 percent headed north to Ventura County.
In San Francisco, 80 percent of those who left the city proper went to the surrounding San Mateo, Marin and Alameda Counties.
The NYT’s goes on to note that nearly 37 percent of residents who left San Diego headed to neighboring Riverside County.
Looking at data from June-December 2020, geospatial analytics company Orbital Insight found that both Los Angeles and San Diego’s populations had a net loss of just 2.1 percent. San Francisco saw a slightly higher loss of of 3.6 percent.
You can read more from the New York Times feature on California migration here.