"People coming to California in general do not have resources, and the people who do have resources and wealth are leaving the state."
Compare to the phenomenon common in Europe.
-- From "California population growth slows" by Wyatt Buchanan, San Francisco Chronicle Sacramento Bureau 12/18/09
More people left the state for other parts of the country than moved here, a difference of about 142,000 people. While that number is outweighed by people moving from other countries to California, it continues a trend of migration to other states that began in 2005.
Since that year, more than half a million more people have left California than have moved to the state. They mainly have moved to neighboring Western states, said Mary Heim, chief of the demographic research unit at the Department of Finance. In past years, more of those people moved to Nevada, but last year saw an increase in people moving to Oregon and Washington, she said. Texas also attracts a large number of Californians.
Hans Johnson, a demographer at the Public Policy Institute of California, said he is not surprised by the data.
"Most people who move to or from California do so for economic reasons, specifically jobs. Our unemployment rate is significantly higher than the rest of the country and when that happens, California tends to send more migrants to other states than we receive," Johnson said.
California's birthrate and immigration from outside the United States, both legal and illegal, kept the state's growth rate positive at 0.92 percent.
Stemming the loss of population to other states has been a priority for Republicans at the state Capitol, who blame California's regulatory climate for pushing jobs, and thus residents, to other states.
To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.
