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Census Report: New York Is Losing New Yorkers
By
Sophia Chang
Published Jan 1, 2020
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By
Sophia Chang
Published Jan 1, 2020
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New York has lost the most residents in the country in 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
There were an estimated 76,790 fewer New Yorkers in the state this past year, a drop of 0.4 percent, which made it the biggest percentage decrease in the country. The major factor in it was net domestic migration: New York lost 180,649 residents who left our fair state for another area of the country. Only California outdid us with 203,414 residents moving away in 2019.
The rest of the tri-state region also lost residents. Connecticut may have had only 6,233 fewer residents, but that loss was enough to drop the state population by 0.2 percent. New Jersey lost 3,835 residents, a decline that did not change the Garden State’s population by a significant amount. But 48,946 residents moved out of state, landing NJ in fourth place of states that lost residents to net domestic migration.
It’s not just New York’s problem. Birth rates are dropping across the nation as well, leading to the decline of natural increase — or the number of births minus deaths—to below a million for the first time “in decades,” according to Dr. Sandra Johnson of the Census Bureau.
This year, 42 states and the District of Columbia had fewer births than compared to 2018.
The Empire Center, a free-market advocacy think tank, said while there are more than 19.4 million residents still living in New York, the state has been steadily losing residents for the past decade. "New York has lost nearly 1.4 million residents to the rest of the country since 2010—and largely as a result of this outflow, the Empire State’s total population barely budged during the decade," the Empire Center said in a release.
With the upcoming Census looming, the gains and losses in state populations will matter a whole lot more than mere bragging rights. Census data garnered from decennial counts (the next one is April 1st, 2020) determine how the state will fare in its House of Representatives allotment as well as its share of federal funding for public education, public housing, infrastructure, and more.
In 2018, when asked about New York's declining population, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that people moved out due to climate or for "personal reasons," explaining, "Somebody wants to move to Florida because they want to move to Florida. God bless them. They want to fish. They want warm weather."
So where is everyone going? Just about anywhere but the northeast, according to the Census Bureau — forty other states and D.C. saw population increases this year. Among the 10 states who lost population were Illinois, West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alaska and Hawaii, and Vermont, where the population dropped by 369 residents. Maybe the ex-Vermonters all ditched the cold for Puerto Rico, which gained 340 new residents for the territory's first population increase in years.
Tagged
population
ny state
census
Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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