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It's pretty incredible that Massachusetts is the sole Driver of population growth in the Northeast.
I find incredible in a not-so-positive way, because Massachusetts' growth year-over-year was nothing to write home about, either (amounts to a 0.4% annual growth rate, considerably below the 0.7% growth rate nationally).
The Northeast overall really needs to start addressing some major structural issues (e.g., nonsensically high cost-of-living, archaic zoning that inhibits growth, a true concerted effort to comprehensively upgrade infrastructure, etc.), or it will begin to really stagnate. It's not healthy when an entire region begins to be almost completely left out of national growth trends.
Amazing to see Illinois so far below everyone else (even though West Virginia lost a larger percentage of its population). I suppose it's the perfect storm of downstate being in generally dire economic straits and the black exodus from Chicago.
I'm more surprised that from July to July the state is estimated to have lost 37,000 people, but over that same time gained 123,748 jobs.
I think it's hiding that Chicago gained virtually all the jobs, but isn't gaining people as it's bleeding out its black population to offset gains, and then downstate didn't gain any jobs AND it's bleeding its population.
Apparently the budget crisis is one of the primary factors, as the state's decline starts becoming exacerbated after Bruce Rauner, who's a Republican, became governor. He's been fighting the Democratically controlled legislature for years now, and the state has seen social services cut, and at times questions regarding whether certain public universities and school districts will be able to survive as their funding has at times been in complete limbo.
Factor in Illinois' severe pension crisis, and I don't see anything changing Illinois' position as a whole within the next year. Chicago isn't strong enough to support the whole state. Even areas located next to other job centers, such as the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis, were seeing losses on the county level whereas the Missouri counties were not.
It's pretty incredible that Massachusetts is the sole Driver of population growth in the Northeast.
I'm shocked that Connecticut lost more people than was gained by the rest of non-Massachusetts New England. Now, I believe every state in the Union is beautiful with potential, but I can sort of understand part of the issue. Vermont has no major cities while Maine and Rhode Island both had high costs of living and low wages (iirc, Rhode Island also has some financial issues, but I may be wrong). Connecticut I don't understand but it seems that it is the result of people moving closer to New Trick City and Boston.
What also confuses me here is why New Hampshire is growing so slowly. It is close to Boston while Manchester seems to be a city in its own right. I remember it topping a list of best cities to start a business or something not too long ago.
I'm shocked that Connecticut lost more people than was gained by the rest of non-Massachusetts New England. Now, I believe every state in the Union is beautiful with potential, but I can sort of understand part of the issue. Vermont has no major cities while Maine and Rhode Island both had high costs of living and low wages (iirc, Rhode Island also has some financial issues, but I may be wrong). Connecticut I don't understand but it seems that it is the result of people moving closer to New Trick City and Boston.
What also confuses me here is why New Hampshire is growing so slowly. It is close to Boston while Manchester seems to be a city in its own right. I remember it topping a list of best cities to start a business or something not too long ago.
NH used to be worth the commute, but now even Southern NH is so expensive you might as well stay in Mass.
I find incredible in a not-so-positive way, because Massachusetts' growth year-over-year was nothing to write home about, either (amounts to a 0.4% annual growth rate, considerably below the 0.7% growth rate nationally).
The Northeast overall really needs to start addressing some major structural issues (e.g., nonsensically high cost-of-living, archaic zoning that inhibits growth, a true concerted effort to comprehensively upgrade infrastructure, etc.), or it will begin to really stagnate. It's not healthy when an entire region begins to be almost completely left out of national growth trends.
Pennsylvania has begun to do this in the last 10 years. The Pennsylvania Turnpike is being reconstructed and widened to six lanes, segment by segment, and the interchange with I-95 is a significant project as well. They're also going to announce their plans for the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel soon. Act 89 provides more money for highway reconstruction and bridge replacement as well. PennDOT has actually put a dent in the number of structurally deficient bridges since the I-35W bridge collapse in Minnesota back in 2007. Major PennDOT highway reconstruction projects in the near future include, but are not limited to:
I-70 from Washington to New Stanton
I-80 in East Stroudsburg
I-81 in Harrisburg
I-83 in Harrisburg
I-83 in York
I-95 in Philadelphia
U.S. 222 and U.S. 422 in Reading
U.S. 11 and U.S. 15 are being built on a new limited-access alignment in Selinsgrove and Sunbury, and the last two-lane segment of U.S. 322 near State College is being upgraded to a limited-access highway as well. U.S. 30 near Greensburg is being reconstructed as well.
One thing that I'd like to see the federal government do is upgrade the Keystone West rail corridor to better connect Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. Doing that would tie Pittsburgh in with the East Coast better.
What Pennsylvania needs is municipal government reform. It doesn't have to go "strong county" like the Southern states, but the number of municipal governments needs to be cut in half. There's no reason for there to be a Greensburg, South Greensburg and Southwest Greensburg in Westmoreland County, especially since the latter two cover less than a square mile. They can all be one Greensburg together. Too many boroughs in Pennsylvania are nothing but glorified homeowner's associations.
Another idea I have would be to scrap the state income tax and increase the sales tax to 10%. Pennsylvania has the lowest nonzero state income tax in the U.S., so eliminating it shouldn't be too hard. Besides, it's better to tax consumption than income.
Georgia grew A LOT slower than I thought. Only 110K net growth? Must be a lot of rural areas and smaller cities losing population. I really do wonder what Atlanta's metro growth percentage in proportion to the state's growth will be? Is it possible it'll be 95%-100% of the state's net growth?
Apparently the budget crisis is one of the primary factors, as the state's decline starts becoming exacerbated after Bruce Rauner, who's a Republican, became governor. He's been fighting the Democratically controlled legislature for years now, and the state has seen social services cut, and at times questions regarding whether certain public universities and school districts will be able to survive as their funding has at times been in complete limbo.
Factor in Illinois' severe pension crisis, and I don't see anything changing Illinois' position as a whole within the next year. Chicago isn't strong enough to support the whole state. Even areas located next to other job centers, such as the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis, were seeing losses on the county level whereas the Missouri counties were not.
Unfortunately, so much of this issue is tied to Chicago and its collateral damage as it were in some respects to the rest of the state. By holding the state to its power, the rest of the state has to live or to die by that metro area (despite the fact that there are and have historically been parts of downstate with much lower unemployment and much faster growth). The budget stalemate is basically a Chicago-area Republican fighting Chicago-area democrats. Chicago-area politicians have dominated the statehouse for years and have overseen raiding of pension funds time and time again. Some (but not all) of the "high" taxes are due to legislative decisions wrought on by Chicago-area politicians (although the high tax thing always irks me because IL isn't "high tax" compared to several states). Given that much of the rest of the state is basically no different than Indiana, Iowa, or southern Wisconsin, you can't blame people for wanting to move to a different location where they are less beholden to a city/metro area that doesn't frequently consider the ramifications of their legislative actions on the rest of the state.
It's basically slow growth in the Philadelphia area, stagnation or slow decline in the Pittsburgh area, and straight decline throughout the rest of the state with little tidbits of growth here and there around Harrisburg, Lancaster and State College.
And Chester County. That is the main growth factor in the Philadelphia area.
The big gainers (in raw numbers) were the usual suspects: California, Texas and Florida. Big percentage growth goes to Utah, Nevada, and Idaho.
Very interestingly, by comparison, the next "big 3" lost population: New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois (Illinois by the most in the US). Eight states lost population altogether, the other five being Vermont, Connecticut, West Virginia, Mississippi, and Wyoming.
The Northeast generally is pretty anemic--Massachusetts is now the most substantial population growth driver in the region, but even its population growth has slipped pretty notably from recent years.
Taking this with a large grain of salt, but much more discussion to come for sure.
NY lost less than 2000 people, but given what happened last decade, I would take these estimates with a grain of salt or at least to some degree.
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