These four Santa Clara County cities bucked California’s falling population trend last year

ALL BUT FOUR Santa Clara County cities lost residents over the last year amid a continuing trend of statewide population drop driven by declining birth rates, elevated deaths and people leaving the state.

While San Jose, the state’s third largest city, lost a half-percent of its population, dropping to 959,256 people, Santa Clara, the county’s third-largest city, added the most to its population at 1.54 percent. That translates to a little more than 2,000 people, up to 132,476, according to a population and housing estimates report from California’s Department of Finance.