New York lost more residents – and at the largest rate – in 2023 than any other state, despite an overall rise in the U.S. population, according to U.S. Census data.

The bureau released a map showing the percentage change in state populations between July 2022 and July 2023 – New York stands out as the only state colored a deep orange, a label for a percentage change of -0.5 or more.

    • Klystron@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      The literal endless abundance of things to do. Idc if my place is a closet if I’m never in it. Obviously if you’re raising a 5 person family it’s harder, but if you’re solo or DINK then why wouldn’t you

      • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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        Solo converting to DINK here, and for me, after spending years in a city, basically while there’s tons to do in a city, there’s only a relatively small portion of it that I actually want to do.

        Combine that with my love of outdoor hobbies which are all farther from me while living in a city…

        And at this point, for me, it’s more about finding the smallest city that offers me most of what I like about cities while being small enough that I lose as much of the negatives as possible, with bonus points for a city that’s small enough for me to live on the edges, where I can have a house with a yard and a garage, while being within a 10 minute drive of city center, but also less than 30 minutes from outdoor recreation opportunities.

        I’m also at the age where “stay home” is often my preferred choice of thing to do, so having a spacious, comfortable home where I can enjoy living is a major consideration. A 500 sqft 1BR that I share with a roommate or two ain’t cutting it.

        Different people like different things, and while cities provide a lot, there’s also a lot they don’t.

      • laverabe@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        pollution, noise, lack of nature, and depending on the city crime and corruption

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          There’s no corruption quite like deep country corruption. Oh, you’re dating the sheriff’s daughter? Well we’ll just look the other way…

          • laverabe@lemmy.world
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            even withstanding, the other issues are still present. I’m not saying cities are hellscapes, but they are lacking a few advantages that rural areas have. I like touching my own plot of dirt on this pale blue dot. My own piece of Earth. There is nothing like the nutrient overload from the first of the seasons garden fresh backyard tomato grown from last years compost. Or building random projects; or just lying on the ground looking at the stars anytime I want. In my book no amount of money would be worth sacrificing all that to live in a dense city for me personally. But this is just my outlook, I understand many other people value things differently.

            • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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              Oh don’t get me wrong, I live in rural Iowa and i love being able to go so deep into the woods there isn’t another person for miles. Lots of land to bike on and plenty of cool places to camp and chill outdoors.

              I’m just saying, corruption can happen anywhere.

      • june@lemmy.world
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        Nearly half the state population is in NYC alone. Expand that out to the nyc metropolitan area within New York, and you’re getting close to 3/4 of the state population.

        It’s quite reasonable to assume that the vast majority of the folks that left New York were leaving NYC.

        • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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          Oh, no there’s absolutely no reason to assume that. Making assumptions based on a Fox News graph is a really bad idea.

          They did lose 0.5% but they’ve lost less this year than they did last year.

          Let’s say people were leaving due to liberal policy change They would almost certainly just be from the rural areas. It could be changes in the city, zoning, rent, in which case it would be almost solely from the people in the city.

          In any case we really need more data, You can’t just assume because more people live over there that the people are leaving equally

          • june@lemmy.world
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            Between 2020 and 2022, NYC has lost 5% of its population. That’s approximately 450,000 people (or about 2% of the state’s population) in two years, according to the comptroller report referenced in the article.

            In addition to the very simple assumption that the majority of people leaving are from the majority population center (NYC and its metro area), the recent history of people leaving NYC, it is in fact perfectly reasonable to assume it is people from NYC or the NYC metro area leaving.

            You know why it’s reasonable to assume? Because all the data we have is about aggregate numbers for the time period, and numbers for NYC for the two year timeframe prior. We don’t know why the people left. Which, by the way, is unreasonable to assume that it’s for political reasons when we have pretty good nationwide data showing us that the rise in remote work has led to an increase in people leaving densely populated areas to go life somewhere cheaper.

            So, you see, using data that we have, we can make reasonable assumptions rather than jump to the notion that the moves are political in nature, which is what Fox News wants you to assume.

            As an aside, according to the article, the gross number of people leaving the state was about 37k people higher this year than last. Inflow may have been different but I can’t find any readily available data for the year prior. But more people did leave the state this year than last, but that pales in comparison to the change between 2020 and 2022.

  • danc4498@lemmy.world
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    Blue states going down, red states going up. The electoral college will fuck us all.

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      Outside of NYC, NY is a red state. But will 100,000 have that great an influence on the electoral college? It doesn’t sound like a lot in a population of 19 million.

      • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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        There are pockets of NY, outside of NYC, that are blue. The big areas that are red are mostly rural counties. But land doesn’t vote, people do, so it doesn’t matter if 1,000 people in a huge area vote red when 100,000 people in a small city vote blue.

        You’re right that NYC helps keep us blue, but they aren’t the only ones. In 2020, NY voted for Biden over Trump 60.8% to 37.7%. If we removed NYC’s counties, NY would have still voted for Biden, but at a much closer 52.4% to 45.9%.

      • june@lemmy.world
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        The geographic majority of Washington state is red, but the state is consistently blue. Because land doesn’t vote.

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      Unless blue people moving to Texas and Florida flip those states blue, in which case red might be done for good.

    • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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      Unless it causes red states to flip blue. GA and AZ are examples of that happening.

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        I hope so, but my experience in Tennessee is that only the conservatives are leaving California and moving here.

  • errer@lemmy.world
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    Moving to states that have banned abortion, smart move dumbasses.

    • tills13@lemmy.world
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      It’s people moving from places where they actually want to live (because of qol) to places where they can afford to live. Though it’d be interesting to see like a “true” cost of living for these places.

    • CosmicTurtle@lemmy.world
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      Yeah I don’t get that at all. I had several female co-workers who accepted relocation packages to Texas when my company offered them right when Texas started passing anti-abortion laws.

      I figured it was none of my business to ask why they did but man…they are either really smart and wanting to flip the state blue or they aren’t thinking it’s going to affect them.

      No amount of money would make me want to move to Texas or Florida, or anywhere the Alt-right has a strong political hold

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        They don’t think it will happen to them.

        Yknow despite literally all metrics of quality of life, health, and safety being even worse in red states than the already pathetic US average.

        Why is it that every conservative leaning government worldwide is currently in a self destructive spiral while socialist societies are getting better and better in all measurable metrics?

        Curious.

        • Johnvanjim@lemmy.world
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          Reasonable investments in the future vs. winning points now

          It’s pretty much the bane of any capitalist society

        • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldM
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          Like Venezuela? Bangladesh? Republic of the Congo? Seems like maybe too broad a statement to me. Some Socialist countries have seen improvements for some people - that doesn’t make is a magical indicator for societal well-being.

      • hglman@lemmy.ml
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        Having just moved from Texas to the north east, people in the northeast are clueless to how bad it actually is.

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      How do you think political change happens in the first place? Not to mention how bad must life be in NY, a way more progressive state to want to move somewhere like Texas.

  • Drewelite@lemmynsfw.com
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    If the people equivalent to the entire population of Wyoming moved out of New York, most people wouldn’t notice.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    I was wondering what would happen to gentrified neighborhoods once they ratched up the cost of living so high that the gentrifiers couldn’t afford it.

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    moving to places in the south because initially was cheaper and driving up prices such as property taxes for the ones already there

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    The social services and community involvement are better in Indiana than they were (and appear to still be, though I no longer have direct experience there) in WNY. Health insurance was better in NY, though. If I go back to die there, it will only be for the sake of nostalgia and not any belief that the remainder of my life would be better.

    • dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works
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      Depends heavily where you are. If it’s not Indy, ft Wayne, Lafayette, Bloomington, or Terre Haute (maybe Evansville?), IN is pretty craptastic in both those regards. At least that has been my 35 years of experience.

      Little towns got shitty roads and hospitals I wouldn’t enter unless I were actively dying. Not to mention the abhorrent under funding of police / fire / education that is rampant… But all my kids family lives here so I’m here too lol.

  • boaratio@lemmy.world
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    I moved from Maryland to Western New York in 2023. Apparently me and my family weren’t enough to move the needle.

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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    Huh. We’ve been considering moving to upstate NY from central CA, promarily due to ecological factors like climate, air quality, and what seems like the threat of eternal drought. I like central California well enough, but I’m dead sick of 117 degree Augusts and casually living with air quality that makes your eyes water.

    Anyone got some insight on why NY lost so much population?

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    Watch Rossman Repair’s ordeal trying to rent a shop in NYC ultimately leaving the state.

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    “This is really worrying. Maybe we should start considering how to improve the economic condition of the middle cla…”

    “!!! LET’S MAKE ABORTION ILLEGAL!!!”

    “… but that wouldn’t help t…”

    “🎉🎉🎉🎆🎇🎆🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲!!!MMMMMERICAAAAAAAAAAA!!!🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🎇🎆🎇🇺🇲🎆🎊🎊🎊🎊”

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    I have a strong gut feeling that cities will become as dystopian sci-fi foretold. Elite only zones, private police forces etc.