With the economy improving, New York’s “domestic migration” loss has jumped back to pre-recession levels—pushing the Empire State to fourth place, behind Florida, in national population rankings.
Newly released census data show New York lost nearly 154,000 residents to other states during the 12 months that ended last July 1. That brings the Empire State’s total domestic migration loss to 462,172 people since 2010—most of any state in both absolute and relative terms.
See Empire Center’s Research & Data report for more.
P.S. — You can’t simply chalk this up to weather. For example, Minnesota’s net domestic migration loss between 2010 and 2014 came to 0.4 percent of its 2010 base population, compared to New York’s rate of 2.39 percent. If New York had simply matched Minnesota’s out-migration pace, the Empire State would still be third most populous, ahead of Florida. North Dakota (nearly 10 percent growth since 2010) and South Dakota (up 4.8 percent) have bitter winters—but also plenty of jobs.
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