Upstate United Sounds Alarm About New York’s Massive Population Decline

December 21st, 2021

Upstate United, a non-partisan pro-taxpayer organization, is drawing attention to new data from the United States Census Bureau that shows a large drop in New York’s population over the last year.

The data, published today, found that New York’s population declined between 319,020 between July 1, 2020 and July 1, 2021. That decline led the nation and was greater than the combined population declines of Illinois, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Michigan, New Jersey and Ohio.

“Addressing the Empire State exodus must be a top priority for our leaders in 2022,” said Justin Wilcox, executive director of Upstate United. “Our outmigration crisis adds to the burden of remaining residents and threatens our ongoing recovery efforts. We need Governor Hochul to tackle this issue and get New York growing in the right direction.”

Earlier this year, Upstate United published a fact sheet about New York’s outmigration trends. Analyzing previously published Census Bureau data, that fact sheet found that more than 1.5 million New Yorkers fled the state between 2010-2020.

“New York’s massive tax burden, sky-high cost of living and anti-business climate have been driving out hardworking taxpayers for years,” said Wilcox. “We need to get our economy moving – not our people.”