“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,” reports the New York Post. “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.”
New York’s population loss accelerated after the coronavirus pandemic, which New York responded to with lockdowns that were harsher and more economically damaging than in Florida, and with school closures that lasted longer and resulted in more learning loss. Since the coronavirus arrived in 2020, New York’s population fell by 631,000 people.
“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,” according to the Post. “Overall, the US grew by 1.6 million over the last year, the Census Bureau said.”
California lost 75,500 people from 2022 to 2023, but California has 39 million people, so California is not losing as large a proportion of its people as New York.
New York and California have bad business climates. A business owner in California can spend several days each year filling out useless paperwork that is not required in neighboring states, as business owner Warren Meyer of Coyote Blog once discussed. He literally got rid of all his business operations in California, operating in Arizona instead, just to avoid California’s awful business climate.
Texas and Florida rank high in the Forbes Best States for Business rankings, while California and New York rank low. In the State Business Tax Climate rankings issued by the Tax Foundation, Florida ranks 4th and Texas ranks 13th, while New York ranks 49th and California ranks 48th.
Until 2011, New York had more people than Florida. Now, Florida has three million more people than New York does. “For decades, more people have been leaving New York in greater numbers than arriving. That’s kind of nothing new,” said a researcher. But its rate of population loss has increased in recent years.
Nationally, America’s population grew by 1.6 million from 2022 to 2023. A Census Bureau demographer says that “Although births declined” in 2022-2023, “this was tempered by the near 9% decrease in deaths” due to the coronavirus pandemic killing fewer old people than before. “Ultimately, fewer deaths paired with rebounding immigration resulted in the nation experiencing its largest population gain since 2018.”
New York and California have adopted pro-crime policies that have contributed to an exodus of residents, with high living costs being an even bigger factor. California has a violent crime rate of 500 per 100,000 people in 2022, compared to 259 per 100,000 people in Florida. Former California Governor Jerry Brown approved “parole for roughly 2,300 lifers convicted of murder.” His successor, Gavin Newsom, has been even softer on crime. Under him, California made tens of thousands of violent offenders eligible for early release (including killers), and it earlier expanded parole for young adults who committed murder. This is increasing the crime rate: A 2014 study in the American Economic Journal found that early releases of inmates increase the crime rate.
When El Salvador increased its incarceration rate, its murder rate fell dramatically to a small fraction of what it once was, and violence and crime fell enormously. Jailing more criminals saved thousands of lives in El Salvador, primarily by locking up dangerous gang members.
