Before we get into this, check out my latest over at Glibertarians. And if you’re not perusing the morning and evening links posts (and all the other great content) over there, you should be!
Now then: The 2020 census has yielded some interesting, although not surprising, results. Excerpt:
According to a press release, Texas was the largest-gaining state in the U.S., surpassing the 30 million population mark due to net domestic migration, net international migration, and natural increase. Meanwhile, Florida’s 1.9 percent population increase made it the fastest-growing state in the nation.
In terms of population decline, Census Bureau data show 18 states experienced a decline, with California topping the list. The single biggest factor in this population decline was because of “domestic outmigration.”
Increasing by 470,708 people since July 2021, Texas was the largest-gaining state in the nation, reaching a total population of 30,029,572. By crossing the 30-million-population threshold this past year, Texas joins California as the only states with a resident population above 30 million. Growth in Texas last year was fueled by gains from all three components: net domestic migration (230,961), net international migration (118,614), and natural increase (118,159).
Florida was the fastest-growing state in 2022, with an annual population increase of 1.9%, resulting in a total resident population of 22,244,823.
“While Florida has often been among the largest-gaining states,” Wilder noted, “this was the first time since 1957 that Florida has been the state with the largest percent increase in population.”
Here’s the onion:
Eighteen states experienced a population decline in 2022, compared to 15 and DC the prior year. California, with a population of 39,029,342, and Illinois, with a population of 12,582,032, also had six-figure decreases in resident population. Both states’ declining populations were largely due to net domestic outmigration, totaling 343,230 and 141,656, respectively.
Ask yourselves – what do those two states have in common?
People voting with their feet is nothing new, of course. And I’m sure a fair number of the folks leaving Illinois and California are right-of-center people who are, essentially, political migrants. Mrs. Animal’s and my move to Alaska was in part (granted a very small part) due to this.
Prediction: We’ll see more of this as time goes on. This outmigration from blue states, of course, isn’t all right-of-center folks looking for a friendlier political environment. A certain percentage of it is people with leftist proclivities who will immediately start voting to remake their new homes in the model of their old, never minding that it was the governing policies of the states they fled that made things bad enough to encourage the move.
It will, of course, all come down to percentages between the two groups. But so far, it isn’t looking good; Arizona is now a purple state, my old stomping grounds of Colorado have gone reliably blue, and even here in the Great Land, Anchorage is a Democrat stronghold.
Where this will all end is anyone’s guess.
