Census Shows Many Leaving New York

More people are leaving New York than any other state, new population estimates from the U.S. Census show, making it one of America's most stagnant populations.

Experts blame the exodus — nearly 1.5 million people have moved out of New York since April 2000 — on high property taxes and fewer jobs, among other factors.

"Basically what you have is a high-cost state that isn't producing a lot of jobs," a senior fellow at the Center for an Urban Future, Joel Kotkin, said.

A middle-class population, which Mr. Kotkin said includes skilled blue-collar workers and families making $120,000 a year, is leaving the state because of a combination of high taxes and fewer available jobs, he said.

The Census study said New York's population grew by about 1.7% between 2000 and 2007, and now stands at about 19.3 million people. The population has grown slightly, according to the data, because birth rates are higher than death rates and foreign immigrants continue to pour into New York City.

The study suggests, however, that many people who move within America are choosing to leave New York.

A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, Steven Malanga, attributed some of the outward migration to a diminished economy in upstate New York and to companies relocating their headquarters to places with lower property taxes. "There's no single explanation, but the patterns are very clear," he said. "People are following jobs."

The number of people leaving the state peaked in 2005, with a net population loss of 250,000, according to a demographer with the Census Bureau's population division, Gregory Harper. Population loss due to migration has decreased slightly in the last two years.

The Census Bureau now ranks New York the eighth-slowest-growing state, behind Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island, West Virginia, North Dakota, and Louisiana. Although no new data are available for New York City, researchers say the city has fared better than the state because foreign immigrants are replenishing its population. This year, for the fourth year in a row, the city has successfully challenged the federal Census Bureau's annual population estimates, raising its official population count by more than 36,100, to more than 8.25 million people.

Experts warn, however, that the city and the state may be losing a generation of young professionals who are balking at the high cost of living in New York.

"It's not the best scenario for a sustainable society when you are losing the bulwark of your society," Mr. Kotkin said.

America's fastest-growing states, according to the recent census data, are Arizona, Nevada, and Utah.