California’s population is shrinking as residents flee the state’s high housing costs and taxes for more affordable areas like Texas, Nevada and Arizona.

Census Bureau data showed that 138,000 people moved out of the state in the 12 months ended in July 2017, while Texas grew by 79,000 residents. Arizona gained more than 63,000 residents, and Nevada increased by more than 38,000, CNBC reported.

The people who are leaving the state tend to be lower-income Californians who are fed up with high housing costs and a 40 percent hike in the state’s gasoline tax. California has five of the top 10 most expensive rental markets in the United States, according to industry tracker Zumper.

The median monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Los Angeles area is $3,200 and in San Francisco about $4,500. By comparison, the median rent for a two-bedroom is $1,122 in Las Vegas and $1,137 in Phoenix.

Data from United Van Lines show some of the most popular moving destinations for Californians from 2015 to 2017 were Texas, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Colorado.  Nevada also is a top destination.

"You can literally have a lot of buying power for the dollar in Southern Nevada versus Southern California," said Christopher Bishop, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. "So it has been a major trend over the year, year and a half, and we're seeing it increase."

California has been a key battleground state on the issues of immigration reform and protecting illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities. The state's Democratic Governor Jerry Brown last approved a law that prevents police from inquiring about immigration status and curtails law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration officers.

U.S. President Donald Trump last week visited California to see prototypes for a wall on the southern U.S. border with Mexico that he promised on the first day of his presidential campaign.

“The border wall is truly our first line of defense,” Trump said.

He asked the U.S. Congress for $18 billion to build the structure, but the funding has become ensnared in controversy over a host of immigration restrictions he and Republicans have proposed, Reuters reported.

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