Goodbye Big Apple: More People Are Leaving New York Than Any Other State In The U.S.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – As the old song goes, "if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere."
Unfortunately for New York, more people are choosing to leave the Big Apple and go "anywhere" but here.
According to U.S. Census data released Monday, people are leaving New York at a faster rate than nearly any other state in the nation.
For the fourth straight year, the state's population decreased as the number of residents choosing to go elsewhere outpaced the number of births, new residents moving in, and people immigrating to the Empire State.
New York is one of only 10 states to see their population go down between 2018 and 2019, according to a study by the Empire Center for Public Policy.
"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," a Dec. 30 Empire Center release said.
"The cost of living in New York — the high taxes, regulations and housing costs — are making it untenable to live the American dream here," Staten Island Councilman Joe Borelli told the New York Post.
The report did not make an assumption on why so many people are choosing to leave New York State.
In 2019 the state saw its population drop by 76,000 people -- about 0.4 percent overall -- the largest decline of any state in the U.S. last year.
