Red States increased in population growth as blue states saw a decline, despite California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom's spokesman claiming "the California exodus is a myth."
Between 2020 and 2021, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data, Washington D.C. and other Democrat-led states populations are showing a marked decline. D.C.'s exodus topped the charts with a 2.9% drop in population, the census readings that ended in April of last year read.
New York followed behind with a 1.6% decline; Illinois showed a 0.9% drop; and Hawaii and California both saw a decrease of 0.7%.
But in Republican-led states such as Idaho, the population grew 2.9%. In both Utah and Montana, the population grew 1.7%; for Arizona 1.4%; and South Carolina 1.2%.
In Florida and Texas, where the states' COVID-19 policies made national headlines, they both saw growth of 1%.
In terms of the number of people immigrating, Florida saw the most significant gains with 220,890; Texas and Arizona followed that number.
Residents who made the trek to Florida told Fox News that higher taxes, crime, and government overreach helped them decide to make the move.
"The taxes I was paying in Cook County … were getting really insane," Paula Miller, a former Chicago-area resident, said. "My property tax went up $1,000 in one year. And I realized that that trend was going to continue."
But Miller adds she now feels "truly safe" in Florida because Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis "is a law-and-order governor."
"Our plan was to reassess in the summer of 2022 where we wanted to go, but with COVID and city life in general … we decided to come to Florida in November," Lauren Callahan, a former Chicago resident, said.
A spokesperson for Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom claimed last week "the California exodus is a myth," pointing to economic data and not population figures.
"California's economy grew at a 4.7% annual rate in the past quarter-century compared with 4% U.S. growth; and more recently, California's economy expanded at 3.9% annually in the last 5 years vs. 2.9% annually," the governor's office reported.
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