New York was one of eight states to lose population over the past year with nearly 102,000 residents — the most in the nation — fleeing the Empire State, new data finds.
While Democrat-run New York and California saw a notable drop in population from July 2022 to July 2023, Republican-helmed states like Texas and Florida notched a considerable net increase of people moving in, the US Census Bureau said Tuesday.
New York’s population was about 19.57 million as of July 1 after it was roughly 19.67 million just 12 months ago — the largest decline of any state in the country, census data shows.
That equals about 0.5 year-over-year change for the fourth most populated US state.
Since COVID began spreading in spring 2020, New York’s population has decreased by 631,000 people, Census numbers indicate.
“For decades, more people have been leaving New York in greater numbers than arriving. That’s kind of nothing new,” researcher Jan Vink, who works in Cornell’s program of applied demographic, told Newsday Tuesday.
He noted the number of people packing their suitcases used to be offset by natural increases, but those increases are also going down.
California lost the next largest share of residents with a net decrease of almost 75,500, according to the federal agency.
The Golden State still led the country in population following the drop-off.
The Northeast — which was found to have the safest small cities and towns in the country — was the only region to lose population over the last year, according to the census report.
States that picked up the most people were Texas and Florida, adding 473,453 and 365,205, respectively. North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina rounded out the other top five states to gain population.
New Jersey was one of 11 states to see population growth after it dealt with a decrease a year ago. It attracted about 30,000 people — the most of the 11 states to reverse its population trajectory.
Overall, the US grew by 1.6 million over the last year, the Census Bureau said. While still historically low, it was better than the previous two years.
“US migration returning to pre-pandemic levels and a drop in deaths are driving the nation’s growth,” Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Population Division at the Census Bureau, said in a statement.
“Although births declined, this was tempered by the near 9% decrease in deaths. Ultimately, fewer deaths paired with rebounding immigration resulted in the nation experiencing its largest population gain since 2018.”
