Something like 1in3 states have declining pops. It's roughly split in half blue/red. Looking at a by county map makes it look like the middle of the country is disappearing.

The difference is California's population is dropping specifically because of its political choices. The second it starts making better choices, this trend would immediately reverse.

The middle of the country has deeper issues that transcend politics.

More than location, rural counties had a net decline in population over a decade which is hard to do. But makes sense if you look at the political, economic and cultural climate of those places. No jobs or really anything to draw people in and if you're lucky enough to have some abilities you'll try to leave.

The big decline(2020-21) year the numbers were roughly equal to covid deaths ~100k.

Your analysis seems like it amounts to blue state--the libs did it. red state--who knows lol?

The decline of population in the middle of the country transcends party. The population decline in Illinois is just as bad as any of the red states. Also, I never claimed "who knows" why the middle of the country is declining. Although a little simplistic and crude, Ecriture's analysis is more or less accurate IMO.

California is an economic powerhouse (probably bigger economy than all the midwest combined) with massive immigration (legal and illegal) of young people. California's recent population decline is definitely a reflection of recent political dysfunction, and if/when more sensible people take over emigration will slow down, immigration will increase even more, and the slope of the population increase will go back to the levels it was from 2000-2018.

(the graph doesn't show the x axis, but it is 1960-2022, with the dip at the very end being the last couple years)

The big number drop in '20-'21 is still mostly covid deaths likely followed by some knock on covid effects the last couple years. Conservatives are supposed to be seeing the immigration declines as a positive remember? That's what they wanted Regardless I can see why it triggers so many red state peeps who depend on Ca welfare to subsidize their lives. They could just try working harder maybe they'll make it to the big leagues one day

Minus the other big things including birth rate--conservatives etc leaving the state probably isn't really that many people overall. So saying it's mostly driven by politics alone in Ca is just silly it's some slice of the pie--like everywhere else. Politics has been moving people from/to different states for ages.

That conspiracy theory has long been debunked
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/front...ecial/cia.html

https://oig.justice.gov/sites/defaul...712/ch01p1.htm

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archi...-a2f9f4148c9d/

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/...nalCode=ujic20

But it's always The Great Satan innit?

well we investigated ourselves and found no wrong-doing. wrap it up boys.

I know mate I know. Keep enlightening us about The Horrible Truth etc.

Texas and Florida are similar warm weather states that had much higher Covid death rates than CA but still had a population increases the last couple years (in part due to emigration from CA). How do you explain that if Covid deaths are the reason for the population decrease?

Relative to states like Florida and Texas, CA is extremely business unfriendly. Just a ton of red tape and bureaucratic hurdles you have to go through to get anything done, and this is on top of all the Covid restrictions. That is the main reason real estates is so insanely expensive. It is so hard to build anything because of all the litigation and red tape and bureaucracy you have to go through. Also, you should see how much time and money it takes to do minor construction projects, like fixing freeways. It boggles the mind.

The crime issue is probably overplayed as a reason for emigration in right wing media, but that is some part of it too.

Even Newsom acknowledges the bureaucracy and red tape (not crime) is a problem and is trying to streamline things a little bit to make things more business friendly.

Several members of my extended family who have lived in CA for generations have moved out of the state in the last few years for quality of life reasons. Not political at all. AFAIK they all have voted Democrat in recent elections, before and after moving.

The Republicans in a lot of red/purple states like Arizona, Nevada and Texas are actually complaining that so many Democratic voting economic migrants are leaving CA for their states and voting Democrat.

I think Texas and Florida have had tons of conservatives from all over piling into those states plus Idaho/Montana etc since covid kicked off. I don't spend much time thinking about it tbh who cares?

I've been in the same biz for over 30yrs and it's not really even an option in Texas--so even with Ca's bs it's still way better than sorry no dice Florida seems to be going well for some of our friends that have moved into there we went other directions.

In case you haven't been paying attention for years conservatives whine and complain a lot--about everything Christ I know r voters who when they're not complaining/being paranoid about their vote being stolen/whatever else in heavy blue states they'll switch over to silly **** like I think my wife secretly votes d just to cancel out my vote to spite me lol It's comical to watch.

Seems washoe was right.

Can confirm Philly is quite a cluster**** and the I-95 thing is hilarious. There is a running joke here that there will be flying cars before they actually repair the full roadway...That and Roosevelt Blvd

And that was BEFORE this collapse happened lol

However, I would take OP with a grain of salt bc that vid is def heavily edited and all it did was basically film the worst parts of the city, where no one would be caught dead in if they could help it anyway...My neighborhood is not burning lol. I walk a mile outside around my block all the time. Never felt unsafe, never seen a bullet or a needle. Some of you need to open the door to your basement, then to your house, go outside, and let the sun shine on your face. Though the OP contains elements of truth in it, it's rather hysterical and laughable. You could probably do that with plenty of other major cities...Hell, can you drink the tap water in Flint yet?

Source: I've lived here for 20 years and also ran a business in North Philly (definitely a bad area) for 5. But a ten minute drive in any direction and you end up in areas that are still Philly and not remotely anything like what washoe said

Exactly right. You can't extrapolate from youtube videos of Kensington Ave.

When I was finishing business school a friend of mine (who is from India) got an offer from a company in Philly. But he was concerned about going to that city. I asked him what the issue was. He lowered his voice and his reply exact was "you know, the homies....." I think he legit thought there would be maurading carloads of black people with AK-47s gunning down random people. After I stopped laughing I told him sure there are neighborhoods to stay away from, but don't worry about the homies.