America’s biggest cities are seeing fewer children in their neighborhoods, classrooms and parks — and California’s urban centers are at the forefront of the shift.
Across the country, the population of children living in cities has dropped 6% over the past decade, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, as more families leave expensive metro areas in search of lower-cost communities.
San Jose, the Silicon Valley powerhouse known for some of California’s steepest housing prices, has recorded the sharpest decline. The city’s under-18 population has fallen by a striking 20%, placing it at the top of the list for the largest percentage losses of children.
The trend is even more pronounced among the youngest residents: San Jose’s population of children under 5 has plunged 34% in just 10 years, the report found.
Los Angeles has seen a major drop as well, with the number of residents under 18 declining 16% between 2015 and 2024.
California cities make up a significant share of the national picture. Of the 25 cities with the largest losses of children during that period, six are in the Golden State.
San Diego’s child population has declined 14%, while Fresno, Sacramento and San Francisco have posted smaller but still notable decreases of 5%, 4% and 3%, respectively, according to the analysis of cities with more than 500,000 residents.
Lower birthrates are part of the story — births nationwide have fallen 9% over the past decade — but they are not the only force behind the shrinking number of children in major U.S. cities.
The Covid pandemic accelerated the flight of families choosing to leave cities in search of more space and affordable living, the report noted.
“Families had more exit options and they took them,” Connor O’Brien, a fellow at think tank the Institute for Progress, told the WSJ.
A handful of large cities, particularly in the Sun Belt, have bucked the trend and increased their share of kids.
The number of children in Fort Worth, Texas, and Jacksonville, Fla., increased by 11% over a decade, followed by Washington, D.C. and Seattle, which have each increased their kid populations by 10%.
