A new report shows a net loss of 173,000 people from July 2020 to July 2021.
Los Angeles County and the Bay Area lost the most people.
More than 67,000 people left the Los Angeles area and about 64,000 left the Bay Area.
This is the first time that both areas lost population in the same year.
Many blame the state's high cost of living where the median price of a single-family home is nearly $800,000.
But state officials blame declining birth rates, a drop in international migration and increased coronavirus deaths.