{"id":251646,"date":"2026-04-04T13:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/251646\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T13:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T13:24:08","slug":"are-people-leaving-california-heres-what-the-numbers-show-us-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/251646\/","title":{"rendered":"Are people leaving California? Here\u2019s what the numbers show us \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few things fuel the grand debate about California\u2019s economy more than population flows in and out of the Golden State. The annual interstate migration statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau give us a picture of who is moving where. Let\u2019s focus on what demographers call \u201cnet migration \u201c\u2013 the number of people arriving compared with the number of people departing a state. Let\u2019s ponder recently released 2024 statistics.<\/p>\n

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WHY? FOLLOW THE MONEY<\/p>\n

California\u2019s net outflow is nothing new. In 2024, California had a net out-migration of 254,400, the largest in the nation. That\u2019s 661,200 residents leaving for other states, No. 1 for exits among the states. Meanwhile, 406,900 people arrived, No. 3 among the states. Hints to motivations can be found by looking at California\u2019s net out-migration stats by state and comparing those relocations with rankings of states for various attributes.<\/p>\n

This math shows financial issues are more important than livability. Consider where the outflow went:<\/p>\n

58% to the business-friendliest states, as ranked by CNBC.52% to states scored as great places for retirement, as ranked by Motley Fool.52% to states known for low taxes, as ranked by the Tax Foundation.30% to states with the best quality of life, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.31% to the most family-friendly states, as ranked by WalletHub.<\/p>\n

Additionally, note that net outmigration does not mean there\u2019s an exodus of Californians. As a share of the population, 2024 departures accounted for 1.7% of Californians. That\u2019s the fourth-lowest exit rate among states. California\u2019s population challenge is attracting fellow Americans \u2013 only 1% of the state\u2019s population were new residents from elsewhere in the nation, the worst attraction rate amongst the states.<\/p>\n

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Sources: National Association of Realtors and U.S. Census, Q3 2023 and Jonathan Lansner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Few things fuel the grand debate about California\u2019s economy more than population flows in and out of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,100],"class_list":{"0":"post-251646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}