Goodbye California; More People Leaving than Ever

The Census Bureau says, for the first time, more Californians left the state during the latter half of the 1990s than moved in from other states.

Only New York, which lost 874,000 more residents to other states than it took in, had a bigger net decline than California, which lost 755,000.

Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania also lost more than they gained. William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution in Washington, says the California departures could be a sign that residents were fed up with high housing prices and sprawl.

Next-door Nevada was the place of choice for the largest number of exiting Californians. 199,000 settled there.

The West had the highest percentage of any region of people who changed residences between 1995 and 2000.