I guess the population grew since I last heard or looked. It was around 37M at that point and it has been going down so I figured it was lower. No biggie. Close enough to make the point. I should have been more clear about where the dense population area are but I guess you know them better than I do since I move away in 2000.
The good thing about CA, besides the geography, is once one gets away from those dense population areas it starts to get much nicer politically speaking. For whatever reason; leftists like to nest together in dense cities.
The population of California has never been declining. It’s true that more people leave the state then move in from other states, but immigration more than makes up for it.