A record number of New Yorkers packed their bags and moved to Florida in 2022, fleeing the state’s high taxes and rising crime, according to a recent report.
Data from the census shows that Florida was the fastest-growing state in the United States last year. Nearly 65,000 driver’s license transfers came from the Empire State, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
License transfers are a reliable metric for tracking migration because they suggest a permanent relocation.
The number from last year broke the previous year’s record when nearly 62,000 New York residents moved to Florida, according to the data.
The 2022 figures represent a 39% increase in emigration from New York to Florida compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019 and a 46% increase compared to five years ago (2017).
Dozens of other states are also recording record emigration to Florida.
Florida and Texas are Growing, While the Northeast Loses Residents
For the first time in over 60 years, Florida is the fastest-growing state in the country, according to data released by the Census Bureau in December of last year.
Florida’s population grew to 22,244,823 between 2021 and 2022, a 1.9% increase over the one-year period. It’s an impressive feat, considering Florida is already the third most populous state in the union.
“Although Florida is often among the states with the largest gains, this was the first time since 1957 that Florida was the state with the highest percentage increase in population,” said Kristie Wilder, a demographer with the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Division.
The rest of the country began to grow again after the pandemic. Following historically low population growth in 2020 and 2021, the U.S. grew at a rate of 0.4%, reaching 333,287,557 residents in 2022, the Census Bureau reported. The growth was primarily attributed to immigration, although there were 245,080 more births than deaths in the U.S. last year.
The South, which was already the most populous area in the country, was the region with the fastest growth and highest gains in the U.S. There was a net gain of 414,740 immigrants from foreign countries in the region, along with 867,935 new residents who moved from other U.S. states, totaling 1,282,675 new residents.
The Northeast and Midwest lost population as residents moved to the South and West. While Florida was the fastest-growing state, Texas reached a total population of 30,029,572 million. Texas and California are now the only two states with a population over 30 million.
Source: Fox News