Long plagued by an exodus of its residents, New York in the past year lost nearly a quarter-million people to other states. But while an influx of foreign immigrants and a ''natural'' gain from births over the past six years has offset the state's population loss, a new Empire Center Research Bulletin based on the latest Census data shows New York has been growing at less than one-third the national rate this decade.

''The latest Census estimates underscore the key challenge facing Governor Spitzer,'' said E.J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy. ''New York has been witnessing a mass exodus of human capital it can ill afford to lose.''

Authored by McMahon and Empire Center Research Associate Kathryn McCall, the Research Bulletin highlights these findings:

-- Roughly 12 out of every 1,000 New York residents moved elsewhere in the country between mid-2005 and mid-2006 -- nearly double the overall rate of out-migration for the slow-going Northeast region.

-- New York's loss of 225,766 people to other states between 2005 and 2006 was exceeded only by out-migration totals for California and hurricane-ravaged Louisiana.
-- More than 1.2 million New York residents have moved to other states since 2000 -- the biggest such loss experienced by any state.

''Working with the Legislature, the new governor's top priority must be to foster the economic growth and opportunities we need to keep more New Yorkers in New York,'' said McMahon, the bulletin's lead author.

The Empire Center is a project of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, one of the nation's leading non-profit, non-partisan think tanks. The four-page Research Bulletin can be downloaded here: http://www.empirecenter.org/pb/2007/01/migrating_new_y.cfm.