The latest population figures for the Golden State are in, and the slowdown in growth over the last few years continues. That being said, long-term growth is still pretty strong… as California’s population is now 11.5% larger than it was just seven years ago.

The new data comes courtesy of the state Department of Finance and is based on California’s population as of this past July 1, which also marks the start of the current 2007-08 fiscal year. The population grew by only 438,000 over the last year, part of a trend of slower growth in recent years.

The entire report can be found on the department’s website, but some nifty facts to ponder on this Wednesday morning:

* There may be 58 counties in the state, but a full 70% of the population lives in just nine of them: Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Alameda, Sacramento and Contra Costa.

* The fastest growing populations on a percentage basis over the last year were in Riverside, Imperial, and Sutter counties… each growing more than 3%. Riverside also made the list of counties that grew the most in actual numbers of people.

* Three of every four new Californians are natives; only 25% of the population growth came from migration to the state.

* Wanna get away from the crowds? Try Alpine County, in between Lake Tahoe and Yosemite, which has just 1,261 residents. That’s the state’s smallest county population (of course, it’s not a big county size-wise either, at 743 square miles).

The biggest crowds… need you really ask? They’re in Los Angeles County where the population is a whopping 10.3 million.