PEOPLE LEAVE, BUT POPULATION GROWS BIRTHS CAUSE L.A. TO GET EVEN BIGGER.

Byline: HARRISON SHEPPARD Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- While more people left Los Angeles than moved to it this year, the birth rate pushed the county's population up by 0.6 percent to 10.3 million, population figures released Wednesday show.

Los Angeles County's growth has slowed steadily over the past several years -- it was more than 1 percent just two years ago -- a trend experts attribute to high housing costs and slowing birth rates.

About 27,000 more people moved out of the county than moved in this year. But births exceeded deaths by almost 91,000, leading to the modest population growth.

Ventura County's population grew by 0.9 percent to 821,698, making it the state's 11th-most populous county.

The state overall is experiencing a similar slowdown in population growth. The state's population reached 37,444,385 this year, an increase of roughly 1.25 percent, or almost 500,000 people.

The Inland Empire continues to be the state's fastest-growing region, as people flee the more expensive coastal areas for booming Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Both passed the 2 million population mark this year for the first time.

Riverside added more people than any other county -- more even than L.A. County, which has five times the population -- and was second overall in growth at 4.14 percent, behind tiny Yuba County. San Bernardino was the 14th-fastest-growing county at a rate of 2.13 percent.

Los Angeles remains the state's most populous county, with more people than the next four combined. Its residents make up 27.5 percent of the state of California's total population.

Linda Gage, senior demographer with the state Department of Finance, said the growth will probably continue to slow, but it will not experience a year-to-year drop in population because it still has a solid birth rate and remains a popular destination for foreign immigrants.

Daniel Blake, an economics professor and director of the San Fernando Valley Research Center at California State University, Northridge, said land costs and traffic are propelling more employers to the Inland Empire, particularly in logistics industries -- storing and moving goods from the ports -- and residents are following the jobs.

``One of the things that's driving it right now is the high price of rental units. And there's also traffic congestion that we haven't really stepped up and solved yet,'' Blake said.

While immigrants from all over the world are attracted to L.A. because of its size and cultural diversity, they tend to move out once they learn more about different U.S. regions, Blake said.

``Once they get more comfortable with U.S. culture and acclimated and perhaps more skilled in the language, they can move out and take advantage of lower living costs and opportunities that are growing elsewhere.''

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com

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2 charts

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(1) Population growth

(2) California Population growth

SOURCE: State Department of Finance