IRS data shows 'Blue State Exodus' over past 30 years
By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square
Millions of residents in blue states have migrated to red states within the past 30 years, according to federal data. A policy group that analyzed the data says it's a clear sign that many Americans find Democratic policies unlivable.
From 1990 to 2021, a total of 13 million people left California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Massachusetts and migrated to Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, Tennessee, Nevada, and South Carolina over the same period.
American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Edward J. Pinto attributes this “blue state exodus” to progressive policies, with high crime, unaffordable housing, high taxes, and rising levels of homelessness and unemployment driving away residents.
“The trend is undeniable: Americans are fleeing progressive states for conservative ones, and they are bringing their incomes with them,” Pinto wrote in a recent op-ed, published in Newsweek.
The American Enterprise Institute is a free market think tank "dedicated to defending human dignity, expanding human potential, and building a freer and safer world," according to its website.
IRS data reveals California led the nation in net outward migration between 1990 and 2021, hemorrhaging a total of 4.6 million people during that time. New York lost roughly the same number, many of whom moved to Florida.
More than two million residents have left Illinois during the past 30 years and 1 million have left New Jersey. Massachusetts saw an exodus of 800,000, with 50,000 leaving in 2020 alone.
Pinto says that economically and socially attractive policies in red states, including lowering taxes, enacting tough on crime measures, supporting school choice, and enforcing immigration laws, are likely the reason so many blue state residents have migrated.
Unless Democratic governors shift course, Pinto said, their “states will face a doom loop of permanent decline due to shrinking populations, rising subsidies, diminished economic vitality, increasing poverty, and a less prosperous future.”
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