A new survey reveals that, for the second consecutive year, more than half of Bay Area residents plan on leaving northern California or the state altogether in the next few years.
According to this poll conducted by the Bay Area News Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley, 53% of respondents said they're likely to move out of the region soon.
For the same study last year, the intended exodus rate was 56% among Bay Area residents surveyed.
The primary reasons for the exodus include: The rising housing costs, quality of life, taxes, the slowing job market, and homelessness.
"There are things about the Bay Area that are really troubling," Russell Hancock, president and CEO of Joint Venture, told MercuryNews.com.
Here's a demographics breakdown of the survey, according to Mercury News:
- Of those surveyed in the 18-34 age bracket, 56% of voters expressed a desire to leave the Bay Area region, compared to just 40% of voters 65 and older.
- People of color are more likely to exit the region — 59% of Hispanic voters, 57% of Asian American and Pacific Islander voters, and 53% of Black voters — compared to 47% of white voters.
- Of those surveyed making less than $35,000 per year, 57% said they're likely to move elsewhere. Conversely, only 41% of those making between $250,000 and $499,999 expressed a wish to leave the region within a few years.
- Of those surveyed who identify as Republican voters, 71% acknowledged they're plotting a move away from California someday — a higher percentage than independents (59%) and Democrats (44%) participating in the poll.
As the survey points out, there was also a 15% group that would prefer to leave northern California, but couldn't for various reasons.
According to a recent state Department of Finance report, the San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco metro markets have been hardest hit by the residential exodus.
As Newsmax chronicled last year, California's population fell by more than 182,000 in 2020, the first yearly loss ever recorded for America's most populous state — a growth streak that dated back to its founding in 1850.
Those figures coincided with a U.S. Census Bureau announcement that California would lose a congressional seat for the first time, after its population grew at a slower pace than other states over the past decade.
California's population in the 2020 census hovered just above 39.5 million people.
The Bay Area News Group's survey had a margin-of-error rate of "roughly" 3 percentage points.
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