By PURNIMA MUDNAL
Orange County is one of California’s “immigration magnets,” drawing 21,000 people from other countries last year.
That’s one of the nuggets from the most recent population figures from the state Department of Finance, released earlier this year.
No surprise, most of the newcomers came from Mexico. The figure includes those who came here legally and illegally.
Immigrants from Vietnam, the Philippines, South Korea and India were next.
The flow of people from other countries more than offset the 10,000 people who left OC for other counties or states last year, according to Department of Finance researchers.
About 4,000 more people left OC for other counties and states last year than in 2003, the report said.
Housing Refugees
The county’s high housing prices likely have pushed some to the Inland Empire, according to John Malson, research manager for city population estimates at the Department of Finance.
“The tendency for people in Southern California,especially in L.A. and OC,is instead of living and working in the same area, they go to nearby areas to live,” he said
The trends are hastening the county’s increasingly global character. Last year, OC netted 34,000 residents,61% of them from other countries.
Hispanics now are a third of the county’s population at about 1 million people. They’re set to be the majority by 2050 with continued immigration from Mexico and higher birth rates among Hispanics here.
Now OC’s population is split evenly between whites and Hispanics, Asians and other ethnic groups.
Statewide, newcomers from other countries were about 230,000 in the past year. So-called domestic migration,people arriving from other states,grew more modestly, adding about 55,000 to California last year.
Still No. 2
Newcomers to OC made it the fifth fastest growing California county last year, according to the report.
OC also held its spot as California’s second most populous county after Los Angeles for the second year in a row at 3.06 million people.
OC had about 6,000 more people than No. 3 San Diego.
San Diego is projected to move ahead of OC between 2010 and 2020.
By 2030, San Diego is seen having 4 million residents to OC’s 3.7 million.
Surf City at 200,000
Other findings from the Department of Finance report:
Huntington Beach became the 18th city in the state to pass the 200,000-population mark. It grew by 0.9% last year to 200,763 people.
Irvine was among the faster growing cities with fewer than 300,000 people. It added about 9,000 people in 2004, a 5% gain, to be the fourth fastest growing city in the category with 180,800.
Santa Ana held its position as OC’s most populous city and as the ninth largest in California. It had 352,000 people, up slightly from a year earlier. Some in the city contend the population is much higher because of undercounting of immigrants.
Anaheim was No. 10 in the state with 346,000 people in 2004.
According to the January report, Los Angeles and Riverside counties added the most people in the past year.
Los Angeles added 120,000 for a total of 10.5 million. Riverside gained 70,000 residents bringing its count to 1.9 million.
