SAN FRANCISCO POPULATION TOPS 800,000

[Charles Pearson]

San Francisco has attained the highest population on record with a population of 824,525 on January 1, 2008. This continues the significant upward trend in growth that began in 2006. The city grew by 1.5 percent this year.

The Bay Area climbed to 7.3 million people!

The City of Los Angeles, California's largest city, has a population of 4,045,873, which makes the city more than three times the size of the state's second largest city, San Diego, which now has an estimated 1,336,865 residents.

The 2008 report lists 478 California Cities, of which 439 gained population, 2 experienced no change, and the remaining 37 lost population. Compared to last year's report, more cities gained population and fewer cities lost population.

San Joaquin in Fresno County was the state's fastest growing city, increasing by 17.4 percent. The next four fastest growth rates were Beaumont in Riverside County (11.3 percent), California City in Kern County (9.6 percent), Imperial in Imperial County (8.3 percent), and Dublin in Alameda County (7.7 percent). All these cities added a large number of new housing units relative to their overall population sizes.