Lathrop — powered by new home sales in the 15,001-home planned River Islands community — was California’s fastest growing city during 2022 based on new growth.
The State Department of Finance reported this month that Lathrop’s estimated population soared past the 35,000 mark as of Jan. 1 to reach 35,080 residents. That reflects an 11.1 percent year to year gain.
It is important to note Lathrop’s population surge was based on new growth. Overall on the state’s list, Lathrop comes in at No. 2 for population growth at 11.1 percent.
Topping the list is Paradise with a 24.1 percent jump to 9,941 residents. To put that in perspective, before the 2018 wildfires wiped out much of the Butte County community and resulted in the deaths of 86 people, Paradise had 26,532 residents. Its population dropped to 4,719 in 2019.
In the Department of Finance’s list of cities over 30,000, Lathrop was first at 11.1 percent while Manteca was fifth at 2.3 percent. Between both Manteca and Lathrop, there are 123,883 residents.
In raw population gain, Lathrop added 3,505 residents for the top overall gain in the state. Manteca was sixth with 2,019 additional residents. Manteca has consistently been adding between 1,600 and 2,200 residents during the past eight years.
Both Lathrop and Manteca are on pace to build roughly the same number of new housing units this year than they did in 2022. Manteca added 1,094 housing units last year to bring the city’s total to 30,399. Lathrop added 1,391 housing units last year to bring the city’s total to 10,388.
In 2022, only 125 of the state’s 482 cities gained population.
The Northern San Joaquin Valley — San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Merced counties — continued to be one of the only two regions to grow collectively in population in California, although ever so slightly. The other was the Inland Empire in Southern California consisting of Riverside and San Bernadino counties.
The Northern San Joaquin Valley was up 604 overall residents. It would have been more but Stanislaus County lost 2,780 residents that cut into a 3,384 gain in San Joaquin County and a 1,202 gain in Merced County.
In the three-county Northern San Joaquin Valley region, Riverbank was among those communities that gained residents, up to 24,695 from 24,670. Also gaining were Tracy, Manteca, Lathrop, Patterson, Waterford, Hughson, Merced, and Los Banos.
Among those communities in the three-county Northern San Joaquin Valley region that lost residents were Escalon and Oakdale; Escalon dropping to 7,264 from 7,338 as of Jan. 1, 2023 and Oakdale at 22,980, down from 23,241.
Also seeing a loss of population were Stockton, Lodi, Ripon, Modesto, Turlock, Ceres, Newman, Atwater, Livingston, Gustine and Dos Palos.
San Joaquin County overall, went from 782,811 to 786,145 residents. Stanislaus County dropped from 548,719 to 54,939. Merced County went from 284,149 to 285,337.
The three-county region now has a population of 1,617,421.
Among the highlights of the population report:
* Of the ten largest cities in California, only three gained population: Sacramento had the largest percentage gain in population (0.2 percent, or 1,203) followed by Bakersfield (0.2 percent, or 882) and Fresno (0.1 percent, or 599).
* Accessory dwelling unit production increased by 60.6 percent, with the state adding 20,638 ADUs in 2022.
* Group quarters represent 2.4 percent (926,000) of the total state population. This population includes those living in college dormitories (269,000) and in correctional facilities (168,000). In 2022, California’s group quarters population increased by 11,000 people or 1.2 percent.
* The college dormitory population grew by 16,000 (6.2 percent). Correctional facilities declined in population in 2022 by 4,200 people (-2.5 percent) across federal, state and local facilities.
* Population growth slowed but remained positive in the interior counties of the Central Valley and the Inland Empire, while most counties saw declines, including every coastal county except San Benito (0.2 percent).
* Only two counties had growth above a half of a percent: Madera (0.6 percent) and Yuba (0.6 percent), due to housing gains. The next largest in percentage growth were San Joaquin (0.4 percent), Merced (0.4 percent), and Imperial (0.4 percent) counties.
* Forty-six of the state’s 58 counties lost population.
