The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research released the first in a series of reports analyzing the 2010 census data for New York this week. It found that 1.6 million people have left New York state between 2000 and 2010—the fourth highest migration rate in the nation, only behind Illinois, Louisiana, and Michigan.

“The domestic migration outflow, coupled with a slowdown in foreign immigration, ensured that New York’s share of the nation’s population continued to slide in the first decade of the 21st century,” says the institute, a nonprofit focused on policy issues in New York City, in the report.

The state’s population still grew overall, due in most part to a “natural increase” of births over deaths, but the net migration loss was at the highest level since the 1970s. The 1970 census was the only one in the last century showing a decrease in the state’s population.

From 1980 to 1990, 1.5 million New Yorkers left. From 1990 to 2000, 1.3 million left.

“New York City was the epicenter of migration in and out of New York state,” reports the institute.

According to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the city’s population continues to grow….

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