Emeryville among booming cities in state
of Alameda County’s smallest cities is also among California’s fastestgrowing municipalities.
Emeryville’s population reached 13,300 at the beginning of 2024, according to estimates from the California Department of Insurance, after a 5% year-overyear increase from its population of about 12,700 people at the start of 2023. That was the second-largest growth rate of any California city with at least 10,000 people last year.
Emeryville was the only place in the Bay Area that made the list of California’s fastest-growing cities. But multiple cities in the nearby Central Valley and San Joaquin Valley saw significant increases, with Lathrop, whose population rose 5.4%, seeing the fastest rise in the state.
Unlike many other Bay Area cities such as Oakland, San Jose and San Mateo, Emeryville’s estimated population has grown fairly steadily. Even during the pandemic, when many people left the region, Emeryville saw just one slight population dip from 2021 to 2022, which was reversed the next year.
Emeryville’s estimated population grew by about 2,300 people from 2014 to 2024, an increase of 21.3%. Over the past decade, California’s overall population grew by 1.4%.
Emeryville’s housing production rate has outpaced its rising population. The city had about 8,400 housing units at the start of 2024, about 500 homes more than it had in 2023 — a 6.4% increase. Over the past decade, the number of homes in Emeryville rose by 23.7%.
Emeryville has encouraged housing development for years. Officials have purchased land for affordable homes, raised height limits in parts of the city, and shot past their statemandated housing goals. In 2022, the California DeOne partment of Housing and Community Development designated Emeryville a “prohousing city.” The award grants Emeryville, along with other recipients such as Oakland and Los Angeles, funds for affordable housing and other infrastructure projects.
Lathrop, a San Joaquin County city of an estimated 37,000 people just south of Stockton, has also overseen a surge in housing. Incorporated less than 35 years ago, the city has nearly doubled its number of homes over the past decade — due largely to a construction boom in 2021 and 2022 — surpassing its 80% increase in population during the same period.
Lathrop’s economic development department describes the city as an affordable place to live for families priced out of the Bay Area. Inland regions such as San Joaquin, Fresno and Kings counties have seen their populations grow steadily in recent years due to a mix of strong birth rates and Bay Area workers looking for cheaper homes from which they can work remotely.
Unlike Emeryville, Lathrop’s housing production has focused mostly on single-family homes, state Department of Finance data shows, and households are generally composed of three or four people. The bulk of Emeryville’s housing growth has been apartments and other larger buildings, with households usually having one or two people each.
California’s overall estimated population grew for the first time in years in 2023, thanks in part to fewer deaths and less out-migration. But the state’s increase of just 0.2% from 2023 to 2024 was minor compared with the ones in Emeryville and Lathrop. Its housing stock rose slightly faster, at 0.8%, reflecting about 116,000 new homes.