by Mish Shedlock, Mish Talk:
On a percentage basis, New York, Illinois, Louisiana, and California lost the most population between 2020 and 2023.
Chartr reports New York Lost the Most Population of any State Since 2020.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
Movin’ out
Even as the Covid years recede further in the collective rearview mirror, it seems that many New Yorkers are still running back the pandemic play of ditching the city that never sleeps to set up life elsewhere. Last year, NYC lost a further 78,000 citizens, taking the net population decrease to over 546,000 since April 2020.
Data from the Census Bureau shows that the declines haven’t just been contained to the 5 boroughs either: New York posted the largest drop of any state over the last 3 years, down 2.7% since 2020 to 19.6 million. That slide in citizenship makes it the biggest loser over the period by some distance, with second-place Illinois losing just 1.9% of its population and Louisiana & California shedding 1.7% and 1.4%, respectively.
Changes of state
The story playing out across the US more broadly, however, is much different. 60% of American counties posted annual population gains rather than losses in 2023, according to Census data published yesterday, up from 52% the year before.
That trend has seriously translated in states like Idaho, Florida, South Carolina, and Texas, where citizen headcounts have grown 4.3% to 6.2% since 2020, as fewer deaths and a return to pre-pandemic immigration levels saw the US population tick up by 1.6 million last year.
Absolute Basis Losers
- New York: -631,104
- California: -573,019
- Illinois: -263,780
- Louisiana: -84,036
- Pennsylvania: -41,105
Blue State Exodus
None of this is a surprise. A possible explanation for Louisiana is Biden’s misguided energy policy.
Texas gained 1,357,842 and Florida gained 1,072,510. Georgia was third with a gain of 315,456.
Andrew Cuomo vs. Andrew Cuomo
For the hoot of the day, please consider Andrew Cuomo vs. Andrew Cuomo
Is Andrew Cuomo suffering from long Covid? He seems to have forgotten and repudiated much of what he did during his 10 years as Governor of New York. See his amnesiac op-ed in the New York Post this week.
Mr. Cuomo called for suspending New York City’s congestion tax, which he championed and signed into law in 2019.
Mr. Cuomo may not recall, but he campaigned in 2010 on a promise to let the state’s millionaire’s tax lapse. He extended it again and again. Surprise, surprise, millionaires moved. “Tax the rich, tax the rich, tax the rich. We did that. God forbid the rich leave!” Mr. Cuomo fretted in February 2019. His epiphany lapsed.
In April 2021, he signed legislation raising the top income-tax rate in New York City to 14.8% from 12.7%—as the city was starting to recuperate from his disastrous Covid lockdowns. Mr. Cuomo pledged in March 2020 that he wouldn’t let then mayor Bill de Blasio lock down the city. Not long afterwards, Mr. Cuomo locked down the state.
New York City’s recovery also hasn’t been helped by the 2019 rent-control law Mr. Cuomo signed. Landlords have removed hundreds of thousands of apartments from the market because they can’t make money renting them out. As a result, rents have skyrocketed. Maybe the city wouldn’t have to pay $388 a day per migrant—you read that right—to shelter migrants if they could afford housing.
Meanwhile, in Illinois …
