It’s sometimes said that no one living in San Diego is actually from here. But a new study shows that’s increasingly not the case.
The study comes from University of Southern California professor Dowell Myers. It finds that the number of foreign-born people living in California peaked in 2007 and is now slowly declining.
Less than 27 percent of the state’s population was born outside the United States. That number is about 21 percent for San Diego County. Myers says migration from other states is also down. He says in San Diego the high cost of living is a big factor.
“Again, because of your high housing prices,” he says. “How can people afford to move in from Texas or Florida? So the only people who are there are people who’ve been there a long time or people who grew up there.”
Myers says the number of California-born people is on the rise across the state. He says natives should become the majority in San Diego County either this year or next.
