New Yorkers abandoning their state in record numbers for sunny climates, low taxes of Florida: report
Nearly 65,000 New Yorkers transferred their driver's licenses to Florida in 2022, suggesting they're staying for the long haul
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A record number of New Yorkers packed up and moved to Florida in 2022, fleeing the state's high taxes, rising crime, and left-wing politics, according to a report.
Census data showed that Florida was the fastest-growing state in the Union last year, and a whopping 64,577 of driver's license transfers came from the Empire State, the New York Post reported citing the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
License transfers are a reliable metric to track migration because they suggest a lasting decision to relocate, the Post reported.
Last year's number shattered the previous record of 61,728 New York residents who moved to Florida in 2021, according to the data.
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The top metro area where Americans moved to between July 2019 and July 2021 was Sarasota, Florida, according to Mayflower. (iStock / iStock)
The Tampa, Florida, skyline seen from Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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The 2022 numbers were a 39% increase in emigration from New York to Florida compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, and a 46% spike compared to five years ago in 2017.
"They come in every day," a Jacksonville DMV worker told the Post in an interview. "I hear all the complaints. I feel like a therapist sometimes," the worker joked.
The worker said the New York ex-pats complained of high taxes pushing them out of the state.
Though migration has slowed somewhat since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, and drawback of New York's heavily-handed pandemic policies, a high volume of state residents left for Florida in the closing months of 2022.
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Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis with his wife Casey DeSantis speaks during an election night watch party at the Convention Center in Tampa, Florida, on Nov. 8, 2022. (Giorgio Viera/Getty Images / Getty Images)
In the final quarter of 2022, a total of 15,595 New Yorkers transitioned to Florida, including more than 5,000 in December alone, the Post reported.
That figure is down by 8% compared to the last quarter of 2021, but still 30% higher than the same timeframe in 2019 and 45% more than five years ago, according to the Post.
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Dozens of other states set records for outbound migration to Florida as well, including New Jersey, California, Illinois and Pennsylvania.