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In 2018, the Golden State grew by 186,807 people, according to data released by the state last week. That’s about two Los Angeles Memorial Coliseums, or almost 10 Oracle Arenas full of new Californians.

Sounds like a lot, right?

If you caught this Los Angeles Times headline, you already know the plot twist: That number actually represents the slowest growth in the state’s entire history, a meager 0.47 percent increase over the year before.

It brought the state’s total population as of Jan. 1 to 39.9 million, just shy of the 40 million that Tina Daley, who heads demographic research for the state’s department of finance, told me that her office was tentatively predicting earlier this year.

The anemic increase isn’t great; economists will tell you that a stagnant or declining work force makes it tough to sustain economic growth. But when I checked in with Ms. Daley again on Thursday, she said it wasn’t surprising.