San Francisco experienced a significant dip in its population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, Santa Clara County saw a loss of nearly 80,000 residents between 2020 and 2022, while San Francisco itself lost approximately 46,000 people. Even before the pandemic, the Bay Area was already facing a population decline, but immigration had been offsetting some of that loss. The pandemic, however, hindered immigration as well. It wasn’t until 2023 that the population began to stabilize.
When discussing population data, people often think of the U.S. Census Bureau, which focuses on total population counts. However, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) holds more detailed information, as it tracks where people move for tax purposes. According to IRS data on population movement, San Franciscans still prefer to relocate within California, with San Mateo County being the most popular destination, followed by Los Angeles in Southern California, while Manhattan in New York City stands as an outlier in eighth place.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that like other major U.S. cities, San Francisco faced a massive exodus during the pandemic, with 32,200 residents leaving in the 2020-21 fiscal year—this figure is significantly higher than the 18,000 individuals who moved out between 2015 and 2019.
However, the trend slowed down in the 2021-22 fiscal year, with 13,600 people relocating. According to the Census Bureau, the population began to rebound in the 2022-23 period, although it still has not reached pre-pandemic levels. It’s important to note that these numbers do not account for foreign immigration, which had previously been a key driver of San Francisco’s population growth but diminished during the pandemic.
Prior to the pandemic, there had been a steady outflow of domestic residents from San Francisco, but the shift to remote work after 2020 made this trend more pronounced, with many relocating to nearby Bay Area counties, along with some heading to Southern California’s Los Angeles or even the East Coast to New York.
Census Bureau data indicates that the outflow was not limited to high-paid tech workers; thousands of service industry employees also left San Francisco. Reasons for this migration included concerns about health during the pandemic as well as job losses and rising living costs. The slight recovery observed in the 2022-23 fiscal year can be attributed to a decrease in the remote work trend, with many companies now requiring employees to be in the office at least one or two days a week. Still, the overall population figures have not returned to the pre-pandemic status.
