California's Great Skedaddle

Since the start of the current decade, California's net domestic out-migration has nearly tripled to 140,000 people moving out per year, according to Census data.

Most of the out-migrants emanate from the Los Angeles-Orange County area, a quarter of them earned more than $100,000 annually while another 25 percent earned between $50,000 and $100,000 per year, and the most salient feature of Golden State out-migrants, write demographic experts Wendell Cox and Joel Kotkin for the OC Register, is their age. Twenty-eight percent of these movers are aged between 35 and 44 years old, "the prime ages for families," and another roughly 33 percent of out-migrants are between 26 to 34 and 45 to 54 years old. 

California is the great role model for America, particularly if you read the Eastern press. Yet few boosters have yet to confront the fact that the state is continuing to hemorrhage people at a higher rate, with particular losses among the family-formation age demographic critical to California’s future ... Over time these factors — along with prospects of reduced immigration — will impact severely the state’s future. California is already seeing its population aged 6 to 17 decline. This reflects a continued drop in fertility in comparison to less regulated, and less costly, states such as Utah, Texas and Tennessee. These areas are generally those experiencing the biggest surge in millennial populations. 

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