Twenty years ago Manteca was the 146th largest out of 482 cities in California with a population of 62,698.

Today — based on State Department of Finance estimates as of Jan. 1, 2020 that were released last week — Manteca is now California’s 100th largest city with a population of 84,800. It was the 103rd largest city in 2018 and 116th largest in 2017.

Manteca added 1,405 residents last year after growing by 2,759 in 2018.

The same report notes that Lathrop, percentagewise, is the third fastest growing city in California adding 1,432 residents to reach 26,835 for a 5.64 percent annual growth rate. Lathrop was topped only by Colma in San Mateo County that added 213 residents for a 14.05 percent growth and Calimesa in Riverside County that added 499 people for a 5.65 percent growth rate.

Lathrop in 2018 grew by 5.17 percent when they added 1,255 residents when it was the state’s 7th fastest growing city.

Lathrop is now the state’s 261st largest city up from 264th at the start of 2019.

Lathrop’s 1,432 residents topped Manteca’s gain last year of 1,405. Manteca is now the 23rd fastest growing city in California down from being the 18th fastest

Ripon added 242 residents to increase its population to 15,930 making it the 115th fastest growing city.

Manteca’s population has more than doubled in the past 30 years. The city had 40,773 residents in 1990. Manteca is almost seven times larger than it was in 1970 when it had 13,284 residents — 2,101 less residents than Ripon’s current population of 15,930 residents.

The fastest growing area in the Northern San Joaquin Valley is the South County and the four cities whose economies are becoming more tied into the Bay Area via freeway umbilical cords with each passing year.

The cities of Manteca, Tracy, Lathrop, and Ripon added 4,440 residents in 2019, 6,275 residents in 2018, and 4,464 people in 2017. That means the South County has added basically population the size of Ripon in three years. Ripon now has 15,930 residents while the four cities combined grew by 15,139 people in three years.

The four cities have a combined population of 222,530 or 195 more than Modesto’s 222,335 residents that ranks it as California’s 17th largest city, up from 19th in 2018. Stockton is the largest city in the Northern San Joaquin Valley and 13th statewide with 318,522 people.

The three county Northern San Joaquin Valley — San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced counties — added 23,533 residents with San Joaquin growing by 17,076 Stanislaus by 3,691, and Merced by 2,786. Stockton added 1,257 and Modesto grew by 2,209.

The three-county region has a combined population of 1,614,862.  If the Northern San Joaquin Valley were a separate state it would rank 41st based on population. It would be ahead of Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont and Wyoming plus the District of Columbia.

California as a whole is still by far the most populous state in the union with 39,782,870 residents having grown 0.2 percent in 2019 to grow the population by 87,494. At the current rate, the Golden State will surpass 40 million residents by July 1, 2022.

*Stockton is the largest city in the 209 at 318,526 followed by Modesto at 222,335, Tracy at 95,931, Merced at 88,120, Manteca fifth at 84,800, Turlock at 74,297, and Lodi at 67,930

*Manteca at is current growth rate will top 100,000 residents in 2029. If that happens, Manteca will have quadrupled in size in 49 years. The city’s population in 1980 was 23,150 residents or 3,587 less residents than Lathrop is at today at 26,837

*Lathrop at its current growth rate will top 36,000 residents in 2028.

*Ripon at its current growth rate will top 20,000 residents in 2033.