People Fled NY Faster Than Any Other U.S. State In 2019: Census

NEW YORK CITY – People are fleeing New York much faster than any other state in the nation, figures released Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau show.

More than 76,000 people packed up and shipped out of New York during 2019, heading to states such as Florida, Georgia and Texas — which were among the fastest-growing areas.

After New York, the states that saw most people leaving were Illinois, with 51,250 departees; West Virginia, with 12,144; and Louisiana, with 10,896.

Despite the number of people leaving New York, the actual percentage decline was just 0.04 percent compared with 2018, with 19,453, 561 people still calling the state home, the Census Bureau found.

That made the state the fourth most heavily populated in the United States, with California, Texas and Florida having more residents. The country as a whole had 328,239,523 people living in it — an increase of 0.5 percent or 1,552,022 people.

“Natural increase, or when the number of births is greater than the number of deaths, dropped below 1 million in 2019 for the first time in decades," said Dr. Sandra Johnson, a census statistician.

Despite the state's population drop, New York City is still seeing a surge in the number of homes being built. Experts at real estate website Localize.city estimate 26,000 new apartments will hit the market in 202o — 6,000 more than this year.