(NEXSTAR) – The California exodus continues, new Census data released Thursday shows. In 2022, more than 817,000 people left the Golden State for somewhere else in the U.S. As in years prior, Texas was their No. 1 target.
About 102,000 ex-Californians sought greener – or more likely, cheaper – pastures in Texas last year. That’s a modest drop from 2021, when 107,000 people made the same move.
“There are good jobs in California, but housing is incredibly expensive. It hurts young families, and it hurts immigrant families,” said Manuel Pastor, a professor of sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California, said in an interview with the Associated Press.
But Californians’ love affair with the Lone Star State wasn’t one-sided. Texans moving out of state were also most likely to choose California as their destination. About 42,000 people made the move in that direction in 2022.
After California, Texans were most likely to move to Florida, Oklahoma and Colorado. The least likely destination was West Virginia. Only about 580 Texans made that leap.
Texas lost about 494,000 people to out-of-state moves last year, but still ended up in the positive with about 668,000 people moving in. The trend has caused real estate prices to climb in many of Texas’ larger cities.
Texas also received lots of incoming people last year from Florida (41,747), New York (30,890), Illinois (25,272), Louisiana (25,192) and Colorado (24,511).
The new data comes the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. The survey happens more frequently than the official Census and gives people a better idea of changes happening in their community year to year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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