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About 100,000 more people moved away from California in 2011 than relocated to the Golden State, according to the latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau.
In recent years, unemployment in the state has skyrocketed, while the cost of living has increased.
So, where are these Californians going? The Census Bureau calculated that the most popular destination is Texas, with 58,992 residents relocating there along with a number of California companies.
Arizona was next on the list, with 49,635 people moving, then Nevada, Washington, and Oregon.
Although in smaller numbers, others are still relocating to the Golden State. Texans make up the largest number of new California residents with 37,387 people, according to the report. That is followed by people from Washington (36,481), Nevada (36,159), Arizona (35,650), and New York (25,269).
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In total, 468,428 people have moved to California from other states, and 269,772 have moved to the state from other countries, according to the Census Bureau.
Economic experts are optimistic that California’s economy has started picking up steam, and may halt the movement of residents out of the state.
“We expect over the next couple of years that we will add jobs,” said Robert Kleinhenz, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation.
"This year, we’ve added jobs in California at a faster pace than in the nation as a whole. So, we are moving in right direction. As that happens, we’ll see the migration numbers turn around some," he added.
The agriculture industry, one of the state’s largest, has been particularly affected by fewer undocumented immigrants crossing the border, deterred from coming to the U.S. because of high unemployment and a developing middle class in Mexico.
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I'm a Southern Californian, born and raised (since the 40's). I like it here. All is good.
A lost breed.
From reading the article, sounds like California is just swapping residents with Texas, Arizona, Nevada and Washington.
Can't understand why??? Could it be no jobs and crippling taxes? - keep voting in those Blue Democrats!!! Keep raising those taxes on the rich people - that should work!!!
This is hardly newsworthy.
California has about 37,691,912 million residents- so a variance of 100,000 people boils down to about .00265, or around a quarter of one percent.
Using that variance over so short a time as one year as a foundation for any statistical speculation is unsound at best.
This is a bone thrown over the dogpound fence- it has no purpose but starting a squabble- and as so few have responded, it even seems to have failed to achieve that objective.
More then half illegal aliens.
Hard call, Ray- undocumented means no information. My perception is a lot of those folks went home because the opportunities here dried up- but that's changing. The economy is actually picking up locally. Regardless, the sample is too small and the duration too short to draw any valid conclusions- either way.
Hight taxes and lost freedoms will make people want to leave. I'm surprised anyone is left in NYC
It's true. But the term "tax" is relative. For example, the very wealthy live in gated communities with armed guards. I would say this is also a form of a "tax". They pay extra money just for the sake of living (relatively) free from fear.
And for example, we pay for courthouses, judges, and prisons. That's great, but after a while you begin to wonder if it may not just be cheaper to educate the d@mn fools so they don't commit crime in the first place. Locking someone in prison 20+ years or a life sentence is easily more expensive than sending a child to school for 12 years.
It's the same thing for people on welfare. Giving someone money to stay at home and raise their children is much cheaper than sending the children to some sort government-run facility. The children that stay with their parents overwhelmingly have better attitudes towards school and life vs. foster children.
Everything has a cost. The security of knowing that if someone robs your place of business, there is an organization you can go to that will help find the criminal, prosecute him, and do the best to make sure it doesn't happen again...that has a cost.
People always want the benefits, clean filtered water, prompt emergency response, smooth paved roads, efficient public transit...but then they act clueless as to why they should pay for it.
Watch out Texas!! They're gonna run your state into the ground next!!
So someone who loses their job in CA looks for work in another state. Shocking. Most of those leaving are probably the lower paid field workers. Move to Texas?? No thanks. Hot and dusty who is about to have whatever water they still have poisoned by the drilling.
Somehow I highly doubt the entire state will inevitably move away from CA leaving it a state of ghost towns. After Americans move away the mexicans will continue their northward pilgramage and occupy the state at US taxpayer expense. Like they already do now thanks to the current administration.
Illegal immigrants have been coming from our southern border for decades. This has nothing to do with the current administration.
From Texas- yes it does. The current administration does nothing to stop it. If anything, they encourage it. Dream Act ring any bells?
I see the conservatives are still firmly on the side of the left! The left of the bell shaped curve!!! Yes, go to Texas and flip burgers for $8.00 per hour. Maybe in a few years you can save up enough money to move from a single wide trailer to a double wide trailer! LOL
Our cost of living is way lower then in California, theh apartment I lived in in 1992 there was a one bedroom one bath upstairs for 425.00 a month that same apt 20 years later is now right around 750.00.
My house here in Texas is a 3 bedroom 2 bath almost 2000 sq feet we pay 790.00 a month. Oh and my husband makes 3x your per hour reference, and that's just his starting pay.
I hope the ones leaving are the people who have been collecting the welfare and not the ones who have been paying for it. But then again, maybe they are headed for here.
All other things being equal (which actually in dollar terms they are not), it comes down to the issue of earthquakes vs. tornados, California vs. Texas. Tornadoes occur only once in a while, but the possibility of a major earthquake is 24/7. You do the math.
What? The last "major" earthquake we've had was in 1994, the "Northridge earthquake". In fact, the San Andreas fault only produces a magnitude 6 earthquake on average every 20 years according to USGS. A magnitude 6 isn't even worrisome for newer buildings. Most older buildings in higher risk areas have been retrofitted with flexible base materials.
I'm going to have to say that I think tornadoes are probably the bigger problem.
Sounds like you did not experience the Northridge earthquake. Good luck to ya.
Reader... Maybe things are a little less "hostile" up there... but along the Gulf.... we have had more than our share of issues.... Hurrycanes and Tropical Storms are something that should be considered if weather and Ma Nature are a factor. It took 2 years for me to get back to normal after Ike only to watch things burn two years ago. And let's not forget Alicia and BOTH Tropical Storms Allison (remember Med Center under water in Houston)... I really don't think anyone in their right mind would choose Texas over California for weather or disaster potential. I always tell folks I can predict with 100% accuracy what the weather will be like in Houston on any given day. "Too." It will be Too Hot. Too Cold. Too Humid or Too dry.
But we do have JOBS.... Lower taxes and regulations that actually encourage people to do things.
While I understand leaving that state, what I do not understand is knowing what thier politics and policies did to it and then coming to another place and trying to recreate the same unaccountable unconstitutional and unamerican ideas where they are ending up. In case that is not clear enough, if you leave california due to high taxes and losing your job because you kept voting in worthless critters like feinstein and brown do not come to AZ and try to elect similar lunatics.
If they leave their liberalism behind, great.
If not, why are you moving ? You got what you voted for in CA.
My husband and I are native Californians. We are leaving for many many reasons. Some big, some petty but they are our reasons:
1. Taxes
2. Cost of living
3. The Dream Act
4. Lack of jobs
5. Infringement of our freedoms (too many to list)
So long California, it was nice at one time but is a huge swirling toilet bowl anymore.
Send us a postcard from 'bama...
At least she'll be able to afford to Ernie.
People leaving? That sure is not bad news. California is by far the greatest state in the union. The state has all climates, gorgeous scenery, the tallest trees, and the coolest cities. You can grow anything in California.
No other state comes close.
Ernie, Obama & Moonbeam love ya.
They have lots of suprises for you in the years to come.
I don't disagree Ernie, now if all the PEOPLE would move the hell out I'd gladly go back.
Yep Dick.... the newest surprise is my health insurance bill will go up $63 to pay for those who haven't bothered to have insurance all these years and are now sick..... and have a pre-existing condition that you and I will now subsidize.
I have had insurance since I was 21... either thru employers or (more often) paid for my own. I have NEVER in the 30 years of adulthood been without it... hence my costs are lower.
So you are right... we have lots of surprises coming from the bills that were passed so we can read them now.....
I've been kinda stuck in Cali. for two years. I can't wait to get out of here. It's too expensive, it's almost a third world country with all the illegals and welfare queens, and, it's a police state. People are rude, traffic is nuts.
I had to laugh at that, really makes you wonder where the money goes. Oh right, to public pensions and illegals.
TDate ......I know exactly what was trying to be said. Through the 60s to mid 90s the economy of California was such that if the state had been a seperate nation it would have been rated among the top 5 in the world. It was the one state in the Republic where if you were not working it was by choice. The education system was world class, the environment beautiful, the police system the best in the nation, clean and wonderful place to live. The reality today is you can drive through L.A. and then through Tijuana and not be sure which you are in. In 40 year work career there were only 2 times I was out of work, carters recession and clintons Great Depression pt2.
As the level illegal alien population increased the costs, both social and economic, increased. The school system dumbed down in order to be inclusive, stressed by capacity. The medical system stressed by the cost of illegal aliens. The justice system costs skyrocketed. The environment stressed. Communities degraded. Add the incredible price of welfare system, etc.etc.etc..
All that burden had to be paid for through skyrocketing taxation (On business and the "wealthy" of course) with the inevitable result of businesses and anyone with enough money relocating out of state. Infrastructure deteriation, business over regulated, high taxation, massive welfare system, massive influx of 3rd world excess populations .... all add up to degraded quality of life, increased poverty, no work and no hope.
The sad part is California had historically been around 5 to 15 years ahead of the curve, what happens in California eventually happens to the rest of the country. Guess what else, I guarantee you those new "jobs" the current administration so proudly boasts about are not going to do anything helpful at all ... there are only so many new walmart greeters and McServers needed (clintons "new economy" and all). Until the manufacturing is encouraged back, instead of encouraged to leave and the middle-class tax base restored things will only get worse.
Interesting that the "Exodus" in the 80s was FROM Michigan TO Texas..............and now the same scenario: FROM California TO Texas........... Does that tell anyone about taxation and regulation (not to mention unionization)?
We have businesses growing like wildfire in Houston. Our Medical Center has outgrown itself and hospitals, medical centers and facilities are growing up in all the surrounding areas. I see new strip malls being filled as fast as they are built. Highways going up all over. New Subdivisions STILL building new homes. Subway still has $5 footlongs (See San Francisco).
Of course, we do have our problems. Our Governor is giving instate tuition to Illegals. We still have to give healthcare to illegals dropping anchor babies. We still have to educate the mass influx of illegals. We need to shore up our education system... actually simply restructuring would save millions (Does the HISD Chief really need a limo driver?). We really should focus on renewable energy (but we are the top wind producing area).
It would seem that low taxes, regulations that don't stifle business owners and a non-hostile attitude toward creating new jobs does work...... more people working= more tax dollars coming in=more infrastructure=more opportunities to create more jobs that pay more taxes.......wow sounds like a really good plan to me.
Sounds like California in the late 70s/early 80s actually. It's a good train ride until more and more people hop on the train....then there's not enough space for everyone, the train becomes dirty, smelly, and generally unappealing.
Don't get me wrong........ we collapsed in the late 80s..... and guess what..........? We learned. We diversified. We focused on things other than OIL. We now have a fantastic Medical Center in every city. We have one of the best Community College systems in the country in Houston (Lonestar College). We ENCOURAGED businesses other than OIL and Energy to come, grow and prosper. We thought things out more and planned for growth. We changed our attitudes and LEARNED from the failures. Last I saw.... LA was still polluted. Californians still don't want powerplants in their back yard. And insist on creating more rules while not enforcing the ones they have.
On the downside of stupidity... we create tollroads and want to have the "Trans Texas" thing built only to give the operating rights to the Spanish. (we build it with tax dollars and give the profits from the tolls to a foreign company?) We really don't focus as much as we should on renewable energy. We look at land as a disposable commodity. And we encourage, coddle, educate, feed, give medical care and housing to any illegal that come here and wants it.
California's government cannot manage their money, giving most of it away to illegal immigrants and passing stupid laws for every life event you can think of. Every inch of the state is privately owned except for a few badly managed national parks, and even they are overrun by people trying to escape the city. There are earthquakes, wildfires, illegal aliens camping everywhere, gangs in every city and tourists out the wazoo. Taxes are out of sight, and you get nothing for paying them except more restrictive laws. The coastline is either privately owned by billionaires or giant vegetable farms that employ thousands of illegal workers, so you can't get down to the beach to enjoy it. Property costs are astronomical and there really are no good jobs left anywhere. Why not move out? It can't be any worse anywhere else.
just keep out of colorado, you californians. you can't drive worth a sh!t.
So does this mean that 469K haven't realized how expensive it is to try to live near the coastline and 269K have decided that good weather and views aren't worth the expense? Just wait, if the federal income tax rates goes up as planned January 1, and then tax reform eliminating some higher earners deduction for state income and property taxes are enacted then more will leave the BLUE states for lower rates in the Red states.
Something to consider before moving to Texas is that we are having a lot of draught and the cities that are springing up because of population growth aren't taking into account the amount of water needed. There are a lot of water restrictions and it doesn't look to get better anytime soon. This will be a big issue for years to come.
California has their own water problems. My brother is in San Francisco and they are always on "restrictions."
Last I saw they were isn the same boat we are in out there. Drought and water will be the deciding factor in the future. He who has water will rule.
Fracking in Texas will sure help alleviate the water problem won't it.
The difference between Democrat/liberal pie in the sky Utopia and the real world.
California did it to itself! Earlier this year, I had interviewed for and been accepted for a job in the Bay Area (I live in Minnesota). One week after learning I had the job, I was told the employer didn't wish to proceed with the hire, due to a new California law for 2012 that was intended to protect migrant workers but screws everybody else. Essentially, it says that an employer cannot entice someone to move to California for the purposes of a new job, because if for some reason the job doesn't pan-out the employer can be held liable for all the incurred moving costs, rental deposits, storage, etc. Personally, I would LOVE to meet the idiot who pushed that one through!
John... come to Houston..... many of our employers will pay for those costs up front to get you here......
Low taxes, no income tax, employers that WANT you and will try to keep you (low unemployment rate=few applicants). Weather sucks unless you love heat and humidity (houston).
Living in California is a nightmare....don't come here...even for visits...ever
I think the true mass exodus will happen after the new tax laws and Obamacare really kick in. My sister owns a small company in So. Cal that employs about 80 people. Beginning Jan. 1 she will be reducing all of her full time employees to 32 hours and will have to make cuts in other areas due to Obamacare and the increase in taxes. She is now working on a plan to move her company out of state. We left California by choice 5 years ago due to a job promotion. We now live in a nice area outside of Las Vegas. After seeing what has been happening to my native state (born and raised there), I don't think we're going back, even though we kept our home there because we had every intention of moving back. I can't tell you the number of California license plates I've seen in my neighborhood and lined up in the que at my childs school lately. There must be hundreds. To live in my area, you need a higher income. Looks to me like it's the educated, upper middle class of California (the producers) that's making the smart choice to get out.
As long as they leave their Liberal attitude at the State Line, things should be OK!