Butte County’s population declines for 3rd year
Paradise population increases by 25% in 2021
Earlier this month, it was announced that California had seen its population drop for the second straight year. According to the state, the most recent decline represents a slowing compared to the 0.59% decline over the nine months between the April 2020 Census date and the year’s end.
The consecutive years of decrease in population for the state are new, but it isn’t for Butte County. According to the state Department of Finance, the county lost 2.44% of its population between 2021 and 2022, from 206,640 to 201,608.
That’s the lowest Butte County population since 1999 when the Department of Finance estimated 200,017 people lived within the county. It hasn’t dipped below 200,000 residents since.
Despite the drop in population, Butte County District 5 Supervisor Doug Teeter said he’s not worried about it at this time because he said the expected loss in property tax revenue following the Camp Fire and the North Complex didn’t occur.
“A high number (of victims) moved to other areas of Butte County where the prices of homes might have been more or if it’s the housing starts in Chico and elsewhere increased,” Teeter said. “But the property tax revenue hasn’t looked that bad. I was expecting dark times ahead.”
Butte’s decrease in 2021 was the third-largest percentage in decrease of population of any county. Plumas County had a larger percentage decrease (3.23%) in population from 2021 to 2022 in the state. Plumas County was devastated by the Dixie Fire in 2021 that included the destruction of the community of Greenville. The 10 largest percentage decreases occurred in Plumas Lassen (-2.8 percent), Butte(-2.44%), Del Norte (-1.4 percent), Napa (-1.0 percent), San Mateo (-0.9 percent), Marin (-0.9 percent), Shasta (-0.8 percent), San Francisco (-0.8 percent), and Ventura (-0.8 percent).
According to the state’s Department of Finance, within Butte County, only Chico (0.5 percent) and Paradise (25.5%) grew in population last year. Gridley lost nearly 3% of its population
over the year while Oroville lost 8.2%.
Despite Chico’s growth, its population is down to 102,892 from its historical high of 110,364 in January 2020, the Department of Finance estimated.
While Plumas County’s population decrease can be attributed to the Dixie Fire, Butte County’s decrease has been significant since 2020. In fact, according to the state Butte’s population on April 1, 2020 was estimated to be 211,632.
That means since April 1, 2020, the state estimates Butte County has lost 10,024 people — most of that is from Chico which lost 7,472 in that span. District 3 Supervisor Debra Lucero whose district serves mostly Chico, said she is concerned about the loss of population and attributes some of that loss to a lack of affordable housing in Butte County.
Another factor in that drop countywide, that both Lucero and Teeter said has to be considered on those people who relocated to Chico from Paradise and in the last two years relocated to either outside of the county or the state,
But Lucero also cited another factor in Chico’s declining population from 2020 and was COVID-19’s impact on the Chico Sate population.
“Consider the student population, because with COVID we had like 16,000 students or more,” she said. “Between those two things (COVID-19 and Camp Fire relocations) I honestly think that’s what we’re looking at in terms of loss of population.”
The population loss is even greater going back to Jan. 1, 2018 when the state estimated there were 226,098 people living within the county.
That was the highest population Butte County has ever had. It has lost more than 25,000 residents since January 2018, a number that would almost equal Paradise’s population prior to the Camp Fire.
But Paradise’s population continues to rebound after the post-Camp Fire low of 4,474 that the state estimated in January 2019 to a post-Camp Fire high an estimated 7,705 people now living in Paradise — that’s a 61% increase in population since January 2019.
It’s not entirely clear where Butte’s population is going as other Northern California counties that have seen a drop in population are Glenn (-0.13%), Shasta, Siskiyous (-0.32) and Tehama (-0.47).
But some other counties are seeing an increase in population, including Lassen (0.49) Modoc (0.98). Sutter (0.24), Yuba (0.35) and Yolo (1.81%). Yolo’s increase was the largest in the state, which the Department of Finance attributed to college dorm increases.