New York Records Its Biggest Population Decline As High Taxes, Crime Rate Drive Residents To Flee To Texas, Florida

New York lost more residents than any other state between 2020 and 2020, according to a U.S. Census Bureau estimate released this week.

The Empire State’s population is estimated to have declined by 319,020 or 1.6 percent in the year. At 1.6 percent, New York also had the largest percentage decrease in population of any state during that period. New York's population has now fallen below 20 million people to 19.8 million.

The exodus from New York appears to be a part of long-term trend. According to estimates from the Census Bureau, 126,355 residents left New York between July 2019 and July 2020. Over 1.3 million residents have fled the state between 2010 and 2019.

Lack of jobs outside of economic hub New York City, high level of taxes, unaffordable housing (though prices fell during the pandemic), rampant crimes and the adverse impact of global pandemic are among the reasons attributed to rapid depopulation.

According to tax filing data show, Florida is the leading destination for New York out-migrants, accounting for 21.3 percent of the net total (calculated as out-migrants minus in-migrants) during the seven-year period between 2010-11 and 2017-18. An estimated 33,500 New Yorkers reportedly moved to Florida between September 2020 and March 2021

New York's population decline comes amid US recording its lowest rate of population growth in its history. The population of the US grew by fewer than 1 million people from July 2020 to July 2021 with only 392,665 people were added to the count, growth of mere 0.1%. It is the first time since 1937 that net addition to US population was less than a million.

With a population of 29.52 million in 2021, sunshine state of Texas had the largest annual and cumulative numeric gain, increasing by 310,288 (1.1%) and 382,436 (1.3%), respectively. The largest net domestic migration gains were in Florida (220,890), Texas (170,307) and Arizona (93,026).

According to the census bureau, slower population growth has been a trend partly because of decreasing fertility and net international migration, combined with increasing mortality due to the aging population.

“Population growth has been slowing for years because of lower birth rates and decreasing net international migration, all while mortality rates are rising due to the aging of the nation’s population,” said Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Population Division at the Census Bureau. “Now, with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this combination has resulted in a historically slow pace of growth.”