Why do so many people born in Colorado leave the state? (Denver: transplants, sale)

[SD7]

Interesting study by Pew Research, about "magnet states" and "sticky states." Magnet or Sticky?: A State-by-State Typology | Pew Research Center

Colorado is a "high magnet, low sticky" state, meaning that (as a magnet), it attracts a large amount of people moving in from other states. But it's a "low sticky" state, as people who are born in Colorado don't stay at a very high rate.

For a comparison, Texas is the "stickiest state", as 76% of people born in the state still live there. North Carolina, 71%. In California, 69%. However, in Colorado, only 55% of people born in Colorado still live there.

Personally, I think Colorado is awesome, so I can see why so many people would move there (mountains, 4 mild seasons, pretty decent job market, etc). My question is, why do so many people born in Colorado leave? And where do they go?

[davebarnes]

that sticky is correlated with "where I went to college".
Go to college out of state and you are less likely to return.
No data.
Supposition only.

[Count David]

Simple answer: To make room for all of us transplants that are coming in to soil it.

Or, they've found the grass is greener. Probably literally too.

[jazzlover]

Here is why: As a state, especially in the rural areas, Colorado can not provide enough jobs for all of the young people who grow up there for them to be able to stay in the state. Many of them HAVE to leave in order to find employment. If you look at the people moving into Colorado, they are most often people in their 30's-60's who have gotten job experience, built financial security, or have retired from somewhere else. Some of those may be native Coloradans who "made their fortune" somewhere else for some period of years or decades and now can afford to return, but many, if not most, are people from someplace else who can now afford (or think they can afford) to live in Colorado.

Sadly, Colorado's fiscal and development policies are crippling education quality, from elementary to higher education, which will make it even more difficult for young Coloradans to compete for what decent jobs there are in Colorado for young people. Add that to Colorado's increasingly unbalanced economy, and it is a real prescription for trouble. I have a young extended family member who will be graduating from college soon--an honor student at arguably Colorado's best public college. I give him a less than 20% chance of finding a job in Colorado--in fact, he is already getting numerous job prospects for good jobs--but NOT ONE OF THEM IN COLORADO.

This is another of the "dirty little secrets" that none of the Colorado Pollyannas want to talk about.

[lurtsman]

Based on my experience, people leaving seems tied to a lack of knowledge about how much other areas suck. Colorado as a magnet can lead to getting students to come here from other states, but after graduation they "have to" move back near their family when having kids. If they got married in college, they drag their spouse back to states that have stickier culture. It seems weird, but I've seen it happen a few times. It's probably a skewed sample size, but it may be one of many factors contributing to it. As JL has exaggerated, some may have to do with better job markets. However, the unemployment rate and wage to COL comparison don't put CO much worse than middle of the pack, and that isn't surprising given how many people want to move here. We would expect the figures to be a little behind middle of the pack.

The beauty of being a less sticky state is that there is less room for nepotism to really sink in. Of course, that's a reinforcing cycle. One reason people stay in Iowa is there family has been there so long that their dad can get them a job that is vastly better than what they could get if they actually had to compete against other candidates. I imagine Texas ranking so high also has to do with the sheer size of the state. It is easier to relocate while staying within the state, and there are multiple major metro areas to provide very different cultures.

In all fairness, if we were sticky and a magnet state, we would be growing at a very scary rate. In my experience, the reasons for people leaving tend to be sad. That doesn't mean the people are pathetic. I think it is sad, as in tragic, when people must leave to chase job opportunities. As people, we should be working so we can live, not living so we can work.

I decided years ago that I was going to pick where I would live, rather than going to whatever ****hole happened to be a gathering place for my field.

[jim9251]

I've had several conversations with "natives" who have moved away and returned to visit, and to those who are planning to move. The overall theme is the change in politics, the influx of "hippies" and the new pot law.

I get a lot of, "It ain't what it used to be so I'm leaving". But again, nothing is what it used to be is it?

[Florida2014]

Personally, I never felt like compensation in/around Denver was ever on par with the high cost of living. I have no data to back that up but that was my personal experience. Professional jobs requiring several years of experience and a college degree with ridiculous salary offers. We moved out of Denver into the mountains and that problem really only worsened.

Weather definitely factored into us leaving but for me Denver just never felt like home. Hard to pin down exactly why, maybe because there were so many transients coming and going all around us.

[delta07]

Originally Posted by jim9251

I've had several conversations with "natives" who have moved away and returned to visit, and to those who are planning to move. The overall theme is the change in politics, the influx of "hippies" and the new pot law.

I get a lot of, "It ain't what it used to be so I'm leaving". But again, nothing is what it used to be is it?

Part of the reason we left the state was actually the exact opposite of what you are describing. Of course, we were in Grand Junction most recently before relocating to Oregon, but we lean left with politics and are considered by most as "hippies." However, we could live with differing politics, but not the lack of culture, which we felt we needed. However, we didn't want to return to the Front Range and the rat race.

I was born and raised in the Denver area, then went to school in Fort Collins at CSU. This lead to jobs are various locations around the state, most rural or far removed from Denver. I do miss Colorado, the mountains, the aspens in the fall, and of course, family. But whenever I think about moving back the low wages in my husband's field, coupled with the high cost of living, keep us here. Perhaps, one day, we will return to Colorado, but for now, it's just for a visit here and there.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by lurtsman

I decided years ago that I was going to pick where I would live, rather than going to whatever ****hole happened to be a gathering place for my field.

My Dad had a saying that continues to ring very true: "You can do anything that you want to make a living or you can live wherever that you want, but very few people can manage to do both at the same time." As this country's economic environment becomes ever more hostile--especially for the younger generations--the impossibility of "having it all" is going to become ever more pronounced. Most people are going to be stuck with "going where the work is," just as the most of the people coming of age in the Great Depression had to do.

[jwiley]

Let me explain it this way,
Over the years I have seen a school and a new subdivision built where my grandparents old dairy farm was, the field on the edge of my hometown, where we used to meet all the other kids to play sports was built on over a decade ago, the hill we used to park on as teenagers is now sold off and has million dollar homes all over it. Now the campgrounds my parents to us to as children is fulled every time I pass by there. Many of the kids I grew up with have moved somewhere else in the state or out of state, and while some of my family is still around about half of them have left the state, and even those still here I rarely get to see due to work schedules.

Now add to that the fact that I know someone in their late 20s with a doctorate degree that waits tables due to not being able to find a job that pays anywhere close to what she makes in tips, I now a guy who has also has a doctorate that is driving a cab. In Fort Collins 2/3rds of the people have at least a bachelors degree, along the front range I have heard it is about 1/2 of the people have a bachelors degree, and there are not enough jobs for them to use their degrees, add to that all the people that want to move here, and companies do not have to pay as much in Colorado as they do even in places that have a considerably lower than average cost of living. For example my sister was married to a man in the military, when they choose to divorce she looked into transferring her job back to Denver, instead she transferred to Indianapolis to live near our cousin, the reason is she actually was going to make the same to live in Indy as she would in Denver, but the cost of living was about 75% of what she would have had to pay in the Denver metro area.

Then consider that our education system seems to be struggling throughout much of the state, and they continue to be overwhelmed, the added traffic throughout much of the state, and rising costs on basically any and every activity that most families like to do, realize that the politics and big city government is hurting life for those who do not want to live in the metro mess, and you should not have a problem figuring out why people leave.

You see I am the 5th generation of my family from Colorado, and I am planning on moving out of state in the next 5 years, in fact the only reason I stay is that my daughter has medical problems and I am happy with her doctors but as she ages out of the pediatric doctors that she has now there will be little hold on me by this state. I am sick of watching all the things I used to love about this state being destroyed, seeing what used to be a state full of people who believed in live and let live and watch people push this state more and more towards a liberal agenda, I am tired of the speeches I hear from people who complain about people not recycling while living in 3000 square foot houses and have a half acre lawn. I am tired of people constantly bitching about the oil field workers and companies while driving their 15 mpg subaru and keeping their house 80 degrees all winter with their natural gas heaters and fireplaces. I am tired of talking to people who own acres and acres of land that they can no longer farm due to the state water courts deciding that the water rights they held are no longer counted while that water goes to the cities to water lawns of people that hold them in contempt. And I am tired of driving 6 hours into the mountains to enjoy some real peace and solitude. So hopefully in 5 years I will be able to sale my business for enough money for me to move to another area and reestablish my life.