Fresno is growing, but how much? New data reveals San Joaquin Valley’s population trends
Fresno maintained its status as California’s fifth-largest city, while neighboring Clovis earned a place as one of the fastest growing cities in the state over the past year.
Population estimates released Friday by the state Department of Finance’s Demographic Research Unit put Fresno at 545,769 residents, as of Jan. 1, 2020. That’s an increase of about 3,700 people, or about seven-tenths of a percent, more than on Jan. 1, 2019.
Fresno continues to rank behind Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco among the most populous California cities, and the only city in the San Joaquin Valley among the top 10.
Fresno County, in the meantime, is one of only 10 counties in the state with a countywide population of more than 1 million.
Statewide, California’s population has not yet reached 40 million, but it came close. A growth rate of only 0.2% marked a continuation of what state demographers described as “a historically slow growth tend since the Great Recession” of 2007-09. As a result, the state added fewer than 88,000 people in 2019, reaching just under 39.8 million by Jan. 1.
The 10 largest cities in California, according to the new state estimates, are:
1. Los Angeles, population 4,010,684, a 0.06% decrease from January 2019.
2. San Diego, population 1,430,489, 0.1% increase.
3. San Jose, population 1,049,187, 0.1% increase.
4. San Francisco, population 897,806, 0.8% increase.
5. Fresno, population 545,769, 0.7% increase.
6. Sacramento, population 510,931, 1.1% increase.
7. Long Beach, population 472,217, 0.1% decrease.
8. Oakland, population 433,697, 0.7% increase.
9. Bakersfield, population 392,756, 1.4% increase.
10. Anaheim, population 357,325, 0.2% increase.
Clovis, Fresno County’s second largest city, grew at a pace of 2.2% in 2019, adding 2,566 residents to a Jan. 1, 2020 population of 119,175. That was the 10th highest percentage change in population among California cities with more than 30,000 people.
Some of the Valley’s smaller cities have even higher rates of growth over the past year, however.
The Fresno County community of Fowler recorded a 3.8% increase in 2019, despite having a population of less than 6,500. A few miles south along Highway 99, the self-proclaimed Swedish Village of Kingsburg grew 2.6% to 12,883.
Other Valley cities with increases of more than 2% were in Merced County, where Merced’s population of 88,120 represented growth of 2.4%, ranking it sixth in the state among fastest growing cities over 30,000, and Livingston, with 2.3% growth to 15,052 residents.
In Tulare County, the city of Tulare grew by 2.1% to a population of 67,834 people.
