U-Haul trucks. (Photo: Public Domain)
California Loses Another 817,000 Residents in 2022 to Other States
High taxes and high cost of living cited as primary reasons
By Katy Grimes, October 27, 2023 8:49 am
In 2022, 817,000 Californians moved to other states.
“The nation’s exemplar of liberal governance continued to shed residents at a dizzying pace in 2022, with 817,000 Golden Staters moving to other states — including 150,000 to red regions like Texas and Florida, according to Census figures released last week,” the New York Post reported this week.
The 2020 United States Census reported that San Francisco had a population of 815,201, so it’s as if the entire City by the Bay departed the state – which may end up happening.
California also lost a net of 407,000 residents to other states between July 2021 and July 2022, including a greater share of those with a college degree and residents at all income levels than in the past.
High taxes, high cost of living – highest-in-the-nation housing costs, highest-in-the-nation gas prices, failing public schools, and loss of parental rights – all factor in the decision to move.
The departure of Californians is more of an emergency evacuation, and it’s only getting worse.
The Globe ran a series in 2021 called “Leaving California,” with interviews of some of the people who took their businesses and families to other states.
Some left during Gov. Newsom’s draconian COVID lockdowns, knowing their businesses would not survive. One business owner in Sacramento told the Globe, “City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela doesn’t realize just what the entrepreneurs have to do to keep it together,” especially in the face of the governor’s lockdowns, draconian local and state regulations, the anti-police movement, and the City Council and Mayor, totally ineffective in dealing with the homeless, he explained.
Others left over the obvious quality of life issues: terrible public schools, high taxes that obviously do not go to maintain the state’s infrastructure, the homeless explosion, high crime, the blatant culture war in California, where Californians have to be exceedingly careful in their daily speech. “We are being targeted and made to feel uncomfortable. It’s the intimidation factor,” a business owner said.
Another business owner told the Globe, “I did not want to leave California at all. The state changed. California is not very tolerant of any other opinion these days. And if you make money, you are ‘evil’ in California.”
Tired of struggling to pay hefty income taxes on his Limited Liability Corporation in California, where business income in a LLC is taxed as personal income unless the owner files incorporation papers, “Quarterly taxes were always on my mind,” the business owner said. “The 37 percent tax to the feds and 13 percent to the state was daunting.” And he said his employees struggled as well. “Our lower level employees were always one paycheck away from not making a car payment or the rent,” he added. “It’s just too expensive to live in California.”
The Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research just released a new policy brief on California’s exodus – they call it “California’s population drain.” The Stanford policy study draws on an original survey of residents in California, Arizona and Texas.
Here are their key takeaways:
- California is losing population to Arizona and Texas at higher levels than ever before, including a greater share of college graduates and residents at all income levels.
- Two-thirds of those who moved said that politics was not a factor in their decision, but the population loss has political consequences: California lost a congressional seat after the 2020 census.
- California’s high cost of living has spurred many businesses and residents to leave the state, posing serious consequences for the state’s job market and fiscal outlook.
- California’s environmental policies and mandates could fuel the economic and political exodus to more lenient states like Arizona and Texas.
“This policy brief examines the reasons why people said they were moving out of California, what role politics and policy played, and what implications these trends have for sustainable growth in the state.”
The policy brief reports the data reveal quite a bit of movement in recent years. Six percent moved within the last year and 14 percent within the last two to five years. Individuals under the age of 45 and over 64 plus Black residents make up a higher proportion of recent movers.
Why do people leave California?
The reasons can be divided into the categories of:
- the clearly personal,
- the heavily partisan, and
- socio-economic conditions.
Personal reasons include:
- considerations such as weather or lifestyle preferences,
- the need to move closer to or away from family, or
- accepting or losing a job.
California residents consider moving due to housing costs alone.
High crime is a factor for the mass migration. While the policy brief reports California and Texas have virtually the same violent crime rates (ranking 17th and 16th among all states) and Arizona had a higher rate in 2020 (ranking 6th), people moving to Texas of Arizona have reported to the Globe they believe crime will at least be prosecuted in other states.
Most Californians leave for economic reasons. “Texas prioritizes population and economic growth to a greater degree whereas California has more wealth and social services. Texas has no state income tax, maintains itself as an energy island cut off from the Western Interconnection bulk electric system, and has more people without health insurance,” Stanford reports.
The possibility of more economic and political sorting in the future is real, the report says. Many Californians don’t see California’s high taxes and poor public services getting any better anytime soon.
The study claims Climate Change is a factor in the decision to leave California:
“California has staked out aggressive goals related to greening the energy grid and Texas remains firmly committed to producing and selling its oil and gas. Nonetheless, more than 70 percent of residents in all three states support subsidies for solar and more than 60 percent support them for wind. And majorities in all three states believe that human activity has contributed to global warming while only 9 percent do not believe that global warming is happening.” Egads.
Another former California resident who moved to North Carolina said there was an interesting bonus from her move: in addition to really good gas prices, she said, “We have parking lots here! They expect you to drive to the store and park in front,” unlike California which is trying to force people out of their cars and onto public transportation.
The Stanford study concludes, “Politically, California and Texas represent the ends of the current liberal-conservative ideological spectrum. There was a time when California — like Texas today — adopted an aggressive pro-growth posture under former Gov. Pat Brown” – Gov. Jerry Brown’s father.
They kindly say former Gov. Jerry Brown “articulated a more sustainable and environmentally friendly path,” failing to identify his draconian leftist policies. And those leftist policies have served to tear down and overshadow the policies of his father and more conservative, pro-growth governors. California felt freer, was business friendly, pro-growth when Ronald Reagan, George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson were governor. California was still a happy place to live – until Jerry Brown was elected and served 1975 – 1983 and again in 2011 – 2019, whose policies began, and continue the state’s decline.
Apparently 817,000 former Californians agree. The study concludes, “the high cost of housing and living in California has contributed to the decision by many businesses and residents to leave the state. And if enough companies were to leave and not be replaced adequately, it could have serious consequences for the state’s job and fiscal situations.”
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“Two-thirds of those who moved said that politics was not a factor in their decision”…and that right there shows the glaring problem with the fact that most people are no/low information voters. They don’t comprehend that who or what they vote for has consequences and is directly responsible for the high cost of living in this state. They are so programed to just vote for the names with the (D) next to the ballot that it never occurs to them that doing so directly leads to higher prices on everything for everyone. Along with the lack of enforcing laws that we have now. So of course they will move to their new home states, and then continue to vote in the same sorts of idiots and then wonder why their new state has ended up just like California only to move out again and repeat the process. We are already starting to see this happen in Arizona which is quickly trending blue thanks to CA transplants and along with it has come all of the same madness and high costs that we have in California.
After we passed Prop 98, awarding 50% of the state general fund revenues automatically to public education which in turn led to the huge growth and power of the state teacher unions, we pretty much abandoned our independent voices in our own state’s government. One unelected union now controls 50% of one of the state’s major funding stream.
We can’t outvote the power of the teachers unions any longer. The teachers unions don’t need us. They get the cash anyway, regardless of student outcomes or internal school perversions. We voted to give this money and power to them.
Is there anyway out of devil’s Prop 98 bargain for the very soul of this state and its future ?
Between defined-benefit public pensions and Prop 98 automatic K-12 cash flow, what electoral wedges can we still control.
What road map exists to scrap our way back to an electoral majority in this state? Or at least to defang the current teacher union/SEIU funded super-majority?
Interesting fact: The NUMBER of kids age 0-17 in CA peaked in 2004.
Since then — EVERY SINGLE YEAR — the number of kids has dropped. Yet we are still spending more and more on schools, with worse and worse results.
I never knew the power of unions until recently. They say pay… and what options do the people have except to pay. Yet their pensions are underfunded… where are the funds Unions are collecting go? Look at Anchor Steam… Unionization doesn’t guarantee long term employment. Watch American Factory on Netflix.
If everyone leaves then who will support and serve ol’ Noisome? Come on people, do your civic duty and remain a tax slave to Sacramento so they can keep dining at the French Laundry! Have a heart!
About 1/2 of the Californians migrating to other states moved to just 5 – TX, AZ, NV, WA and FL.
What do these states have in common?
4 of these states do not levy an income tax at all. The other, AZ, levies a 2.5% flat income tax.
Unfortunately, Californians are being taxed out and our Legislators only care to dole out more public services. When people move so do their tax dollars supporting services. Yet there seems to be no interest from our Elected Officials to reduce spending… only to find ways to increase taxation. Look at the Repeal The Death Tax campaign. They say if we win it will reduce revenues by 1.5 to 2 Billion Dollars. They won’t keep Working Middle Class Families in California but they will spend $7.2 Billion at the State level to keep homeless in California?
Proposition 47 (co-authored by George Gascon) was passed by the California voters in 2014. Smart of Gascon and the democrats to label to bill Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. The democrats knew the low information voters of California would just read the title and vote yes.
Prop 47 downgraded drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. It has done nothing to make neighborhoods safer nor improve our government schools. What is has done is released hundreds of criminals from our jails and prisons. The non-enforcement of drug and theft crimes. Reduced the quality of life for tax payers, etc. etc.
Don’t quite understand why there is a housing shortage in California. Between the people moving out-of-state, the death rate (especially due to Covid), a relatively strong home construction rate, and the low birth rate, there should be a surplus of housing or is there something going on that we are not being told about.
Grant money is being offered to Developers to ensure feasibility of Development. Whose money is it? Taxpayers alone bear the cost. Meanwhile they are taking away property ownership rights through 2020 Proposition 19, eviction moratorium, Vacancy taxes, etc. Let’s FixProp19 by Repeal The Death Tax. Diwnload, sign and send in a petition today.
What Grimes did not report is that CA had a gain of about 125k people in 2022. While that is less then the number of people leaving, it is still worth reporting.
Omitting facts is not good reporting.
Dave – the purpose of these “Leaving California” articles is to show the outbound migration from
California, and why. There is not enough inbound migration to even things out. And, there was not a gain of 125,000 people in 2022 – In 2022, 475,000 people moved in, but the state suffered a net loss of roughly 342,000 residents — and has seen an overall decrease of 2.3 million people since 2012.
Request the author of to add another main reason of eventual MASS EXODUS of local long-time Californian families to out-of state: California’s Proposition 19 — a “Bait & Switch” bill that was narrowly passed in Nov 2020 during the peak of the Covid pandemic when Voters were distracted with many life adjustments with work from home & child-care at home with schools closed…). See below links for quick info:
Very informative news article:
Apartment Assn of Greater Los Angeles: “Proposition 19: The Homelessness Machine”
By Jenifer Anisman, Esq., an attorney at the Law Firm of Harold Greenberg in Los Angeles (2/11/2021).
https://aagla.org/2021/02/proposition-19-the-homelessness-machine/#:~:text=Proposition%2019%20has%20raised%20the,one%20time%20to%20three%20times.
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Watch YouTube, re: Senator Catherine Blakespear’s passionate view on the topic about property taxation:
https://youtu.be/uEk9-xenItA?si=UWs3KWtNpH7NQ4Ft
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Per Wikipedia, re: California’s “Proposition 19 (2020), also referred to as Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 11 (ACA-11), is an amendment of the Constitution of California that was narrowly approved by voters in the general election on November 3, 2020, with just over 51% of the vote. … According to the California Legislative Analyst, Proposition 19 is a large net tax increase ‘of hundreds of millions of dollars per year.’ ….. The proposition was sponsored and heavily promoted by the California Association of Realtors [C.A.R.], and became effective on February 16, 2021. …..
The Greenlining Institute has also criticized Proposition 19 for not helping “first-time homeowners who are disproportionately Black, Indigenous and people of color.” More at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_California_Proposition_19
Currently, there’s a petition to Fix Prop 19 – available to download, PRINT & complete at HOME from: RepealTheDeathTax.com or ForCalifornians.com (including YouTube stories about the harm of Prop 19’s Death Tax). Need 1m+ signatures by 1/16/2024 in order to put a transparent initiative to restore Prop 58 on the Nov 2024 ballot. Unfortunately, Prop 19 is so deceptive that MANY Californians still don’t understand it until death of their senior loved ones; then the surviving grieving family members are forced to SELL their family home and move out-of-state due to the HUGE UNAFFORDABLE property tax increase based on reassessed current market value of their family property in California; learn more about it from ForCalifornians.com . Hope the author of this informative article will present her research on the topic of Prop 19’s Death Tax and MORE mass exodus of Californians to out-of-state…
There are plenty of ex-pat Californians moving to corrupt their future home, because the idealism does not die, like Communism, it just believes “next time will be better”.
But idealism meets reality, and not many people can afford it.
They are exporting their ignorance and lack of values everywhere..