Huge numbers of people have been pouring out of New York, particularly from around the New York City area, headed to other parts of the United States. They are being replaced by foreign immigrants from other countries. One of the major reasons they are leaving is the high cost of living, in particular the high cost of housing. But part of the reason housing costs are so high is due to the huge numbers of immigrants moving there. With this being the case, one could speculate that it is possible, to some extent, there is an effect of people in the NYC area getting displaced by the influx of immigration coming from other countries. So population comes from other countries to the NYC area, and that then pushes people who were living there to pick up and move to other parts of the country. What's behind upstate New York's alarming migration trends? by Spencer Conlin - Spectrum Local News - Albany/Capital Region - July 31, 2023 New York state is dealing with a nation-leading migration, meaning more people leave the state than any other. It's a big challenge, as the Empire State two years ago lost a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and could lose more. For decades, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers have left New York state every couple of years for other states. "In a way, our number one export has been people," said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for Public Policy, an Albany-based nonpartisan think tank. Experts like McMahon say a number of those people relocate to nearby states like New Jersey, Connecticut or Pennsylvania. The state's population though, is not shrinking. "The birth rate has been higher than the death rate, particularly downstate," McMahon explained. "And the other reason is because of an influx over decades of foreign immigrants." McMahon said New York City has seen the largest exodus, but many of those people are replaced. The same can’t be said for most upstate communities. "In the decade leading up to the pandemic, 37 of the 50 upstate counties lost population," he said. McMahon said it's hard to pinpoint exactly why the Empire State is experiencing what he calls a stagnated period of growth, but he believes there are a few obvious contributing factors, including the high cost of living downstate. "People don’t stay upstate because there is not opportunity upstate," he said. "We lose a lot of our young people. There has been a brain drain from our upstate regions for quite a while." An unfavorable tax climate is also contributing factor. McMahon said a property tax cap enacted more than a decade ago has been helpful, but other state policies have been counter-productive in attracting and retaining New Yorkers. "For instance, the state enacted one of the highest minimum wages in the country," he said. Which is problematic for a place like upstate, where the cost of living and wage levels are more in line with the rest of the country. What's behind upstate New York's alarming migration trends? (spectrumlocalnews.com) About 545,500 residents left the state of New York in 2022. While the largest share of people leaving New York left for Florida (91,201), many moved to neighboring states. New Jersey saw the second largest influx of New Yorkers last year, followed by Connecticut. New York suffered a net population loss of 244,000 people, despite more people moving to the state in 2022 than any year over the last decade, according to the Census Bureau. These states had the largest influx of former New York residents in 2022: Florida: 91,201 New Jersey: 75,103 Connecticut: 50,670 Pennsylvania: 44,807 California: 31,255 Texas: 30,890 North Carolina: 25,024 ; Massachusetts: 21,186 ; Virginia: 17,516 ; Georgia: 16,535 The top reasons Americans moved in 2022 were to improve their quality of life, live in a cheaper area, and get a bigger home. More than half a million people left New York in 2022. Here's where they resettled. , by Sara Chernikoff, USA Today, November 29, 2023 related threads: people are leaving the Northeast (in Economics & Trade, Apr 4, 2021 ) California's population has spilled over into Texas (in United States section) Why Vermont is Blue (posted in Political Science section, Dec 19, 2019 ) The real reason behind the gun control change in Virginia (posted in Gun Control section, Apr 13, 2020 )
History: New York was once the greatest state in the U.S. For those who may not be familiar with history, New York was the most populated state in the U.S. up until 1963. It used to be considered the heart of America, both culturally and economically. (New York was called "the empire state" from about 1830 to 1950, because this one state was so big and important it was seen as being like "an empire" ) The decline of New York could be said to have begun in 1953, although some could attempt to argue the state was never really able to fully recover from the 1929 Great Depression. By the mid-1980s, there were lots of abandoned places in Upstate New York, and the decline only continued until around 2009. Some of the decline in the Upstate may have been because more industry began to move to Ohio, but industry in Ohio also began to decline starting in the early 80s. Even up until the early 70s, New York still retained much of its concentration of wealth, glory and cultural importance. The late 70s began a period of "urban decay" in big cities all across the lower Northeast (including NYC to a smaller extent) as well as big cities in what later became known as the "Rust Belt", including St. Louis, Louisville, and of course Detroit. The center of U.S. economic power and population began to shift at this time, mainly to Texas and California. (There was the Hollywood film industry starting in 1927 and then the economy in California got a big start from government money pouring in for naval build-up starting in 1942 during World War II. Texas grew rapidly from 1930 to 1980 due to oil)
