According to SoFi, California is the fourth most expensive state in the country, with Hawaii, Washington, D.C., and Massachusetts beating the state’s cost of living.

One of the major issues in California is housing prices. Finding affordable housing (or anything under $1,000 a month) is almost impossible as there is a shortage of living spaces for the current population.

Residents are not the only ones who leave the state. Businesses are moving their headquarters to different states. Stanford University’s Hoover Institution reports that 352 companies moved their headquarters out of California between 2019 and 2021.

This shift of businesses indicates a prominent shift in California’s economic landscape while impacting employment opportunities, tax revenues, and the overall economic vitality of the state.

While California’s govern and those in leadership do love the state and try to better it in ways that appeal to some residents, their eagerness to expand government spending (with money they don’t have), put strict regulations on business (small and big), and focus on social engineering at the expensive of basic governance has backfired.

Another issue behind California’s declining population is that post-World War II baby boomers–which is the generation born between 1946 and 1964–are starting to die. This generation’s kids, which are typically millennials, are not producing enough babies to replace them.

The COVID-19 pandemic also had a notable impact on California’s population. The pandemic took a death toll, particularly on older people, increasing deaths by 19% in 2020 compared to the previous year.

But “the biggest reason we’re losing population is that people are moving out,” Hans Johnson, a demographer at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California says. “That has slowed, but we’re still losing hundreds of thousands to other states.”

Places like Southern Carolina, Texas, and Florida offer affordable housing for higher-income earners who are working remotely.

As I mentioned before, California has a bit of a housing crisis. The Motley Fool reports that California has the second-lowest income-to-home-value ratio, despite the state’s residents making 22% more than the median US income.

While Californians are leaving the state, California is struggling to see any upticks in their population. In data collected by moveBuddha, California ranked dead last in moving interest in 2022 and 2023.

Ex-Californians are looking for states that promise opportunity and affordability. While Oregon, Arizona, and Washington are practical options, three states are seeing a massive migration of those fleeing the Golden State.