San Joaquin is the second fastest growing county in California.
The Department of Finance Monday indicated the county’s population grew by 1.56 percent or 11,326 residents between July 1 of 2015 and 2016. Overall California grew by 295,000 residents for a 0.75 percent growth rate. There were an estimated 39.4 million people as of July 1 living in California. At the current pace, California will top 40 million people by mid-2018
Rounding out the top five counties — they all happen to be located in Inland California — are Yolo at 1.97 percent, Placer at 1.56 percent Riverside at 1.35 percent, and Stanislaus at 1.35 percent.
San Joaquin had 727,547 residents as of July 1 while Stanislaus had 538,372 residents, When Merced County’s 269,729 residents are added to the mix there are 1,445,678 residents in the three-county Northern San Joaquin Valley region.
San Joaquin’s gain was split almost evenly between births exceeding deaths and domestic immigration. There were 10,150 births in the county during the 12-month period as opposed to 5,591 deaths for a net natural gain of 4,559 residents. Some 6,767 people moved into the county and 2,931 moved out for a net domestic immigration gain of 3,836. The balance was from out-of-country immigration. Merced gained 2,881 residents. Stanislaus added 6,636 residents during the months
The Northern San Joaquin Valley should top 1.5 million people sometime during 2019 at the current growth rate
Highlights of the state’s county population report include:
uThe state’s nine largest counties are Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Alameda, Sacramento, and Contra Costa. Each has over one million residents. They represent 70 percent of California’s population.
uLos Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Orange, and San Bernardino counties posted the highest numeric population gains and accounted for nearly half of the state’s growth. Growth in these counties was due primarily to natural increase, although most of the counties had positive net migration as well. 
uAlthough natural increase was a significant source of growth in the state, 14 counties experienced natural decrease (more deaths than births during the year) – Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Lake, Mariposa, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Trinity, and Tuolumne. 
uAlpine is the smallest county with 1,148 residents. That reflects a loss of nine residents since July 1, 2015.
uLos Angeles is the largest county at 10,229,245 residents accounting for 25.99 percent of the state’s population. Los Angeles gained 43,758 residents or the equivalent of the combined populations of Lathrop, Ripon, and Escalon.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com