Americans are “voting with their feet” and waving goodbye to eye-watering taxes, high costs of living and poor job prospects in Democratic areas for better deals in red states, experts told DailyMail.com.
Recent data from the US Census Bureau shows how states like New York, Illinois and Hawaii saw their populations shrink between 2021 and 2022, while Florida, Texas, Montana and South Dakota saw major population growth.
A similar pattern is taking place at the provincial level. Arizona’s Maricopa County was the fastest growing in the US, with 56,831 residents in 2022, a 1.3 percent gain from 2021.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles County, California recorded a loss of 90,704 people.
Mark Perry, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank, said the general population shift from Democrat-led states to mostly Republican-run boomtowns in the south and west of the country was.
America’s general population drift has been from liberal-leaning states to mostly boomtowns in the south and west of the country
America is on the move: often away from inner-city hardship, like this makeshift encampment for the homeless in San Francisco, California
A tranquil scene of a resident in a hammock watching the expanding skyline of St. Petersburg, Florida, one of America’s fastest growing states
“Americans are moving out of blue states that are more economically stagnant, fiscally unhealthy states with higher tax burdens and unfriendly business environments with higher energy and housing costs and fewer economic and employment opportunities,” Perry said.
They opt for ‘fiscally healthy red states that are economically more vibrant, dynamic and business-friendly, with lower tax and regulatory pressures, lower energy and housing costs and more economic and employment opportunities’.
The five counties that lost the most residents are all in high-tax states, namely California, Illinois and New York. They are also plagued by homelessness, drug abuse, and high rents and living costs.
California is the epicenter of America’s homeless crisis. About a third of the total US homeless population – 171,521 people – are in California, and Los Angeles is home to about 65,000 of them.
In contrast, the counties with the largest influx of people were in Arizona, Texas and Florida, where taxes are significantly lower. The destination areas tend to have more affordable housing and fewer problems such as crime and vagrancy.
According to the Tax Foundation, Florida, Texas, South Dakota, Tennessee and Nevada, a nonprofit policy group, are particularly attractive to new entrants because they don’t tax workers’ wages.
On the other hand, California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York and Oregon lose people because of their double-digit income tax rates, which wage earners must pay on top of their federal and local taxes.
People are also moving to cover the rising cost of living – and the biggest expense for most people is rent.
According to RentCafe, an apartment listing service, the most affordable states in the US are Oklahoma, where the average renter spends $957 per month, Arkansas ($987 per month), and North Dakota ($1,011 per month).
America’s most expensive states to rent an apartment are Massachusetts ($2,632 per month), New York ($2,552 per month), and California ($2,506 per month) – states that are seeing population declines.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is shrinking as residents move out of a city haunted by scenes like this of homelessness and street drug abuse
Meanwhile, parts of the south and west are steadily increasing. Pictured: Construction in the fast-growing downtown area of St. Petersburg, Florida
Some Americans move for political reasons.
Republican-led states tend to be more socially conservative, which appeals to people who share these values and want to live in an area that restricts abortion and makes it easier to own firearms.
America’s internal migration trends could affect the outcome of future elections. The electoral boundaries are constantly redrawn as the population changes.
Texas, Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon won Electoral College votes as a result of the 2020 Census.
Meanwhile, California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia lost their voting power.
Some of America’s fastest growing counties are in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.
Newcomers to those areas may appreciate the warmer climates, but may not realize they have moved to areas of drought, dwindling water resources and other effects of climate change.
Population shifts are caused by migration, both within the US and arrivals from abroad. It also depends on how many babies are born, how many people die and how long they live.
William Frey, a population expert at the Brookings Institution, a Washington DC-based think tank, said the flight from major cities that began at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic could begin to reverse.
Philadelphia, St. Louis and Pittsburgh continue to see their populations shrink, Frey told DailyMail.com.
A long line of people waits for holiday jobs in New York City. The high cost of living and above-average taxes make many people think twice about living in the Big Apple
A homeless man in his tent overlooking the river in Portland, Oregon, where residents complain of vagrancy, crime and drugs among other social problems
About one third of the total US homeless population – 171,521 people – is in California. That includes more than half of the country’s unsheltered homeless population, 115,491 people.
“But in many of the major metros that suffered major declines — especially Manhattan and San Francisco — the new data indicates that last year’s sharp declines in the main pandemic year were a blip,” he added.
When the latest numbers were released late last month, the US Census Bureau noted how counties with major colleges and universities eroded by the pandemic started to bounce back to life.
Whitman County, in southeastern Washington, where Washington State University is located, saw its population drop 9.6 percent from 2020 to 2021 at the start of the pandemic.
Last year, however, it rebounded with a 10.1 percent population increase as students returned to the campus, which dominates the city of Pullman.
Massachusetts, a Democratic-led high-tax state that has lost people in recent years, could face a “brain drain” in the coming years as skilled workers flee the state’s high cost of living and progressive politics. researchers discovered.
A University of Massachusetts Amherst survey this month found that four in 10 Massachusetts residents had considered moving out of the state in the past year, and more than half of Republican-voting residents felt so.
“Massachusetts residents continue to consider moving out of the state, their main concern being the high cost of living,” said political science professor Ray La Raja, co-director of the poll.
“Moreover, it is younger people and the better educated who are more likely to think about leaving the state, groups that the state cannot afford to lose for its future.”