In Nat King Cole’s “Where Did Everyone Go?” (written by Mack David and Jimmy Van Heusen), he sings the story of a man in a bar who had been living the high life, with parties and women, lots of friends, and luxury. Then the man explains, as he sits alone at a bar, “But nothing lasts forever, and the deepest well runs dry.”
America’s big blue states have the deepest wells. New York City’s financial juggernaut has kept New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey afloat for generations. And Silicon Valley’s tech riches have underwritten California’s spending largesse for decades.
The Tax Foundation’s recent research shows that all those states have been losing population to interstate migration as Americans look for greener pastures in places like South Carolina, Texas, Idaho, and other states that put residents ahead of radical agendas. You can see the dark gold of New York on the map below, indicating that people are leaving in droves. California isn’t far behind.
The Tax Foundation’s Abir Mandal explains the movement between the states from 2022-2023, writing:
The IRS data show that between 2022 and 2023, 27 states experienced a net gain in income tax filers from interstate migration, led by Texas (+56,473), Florida (+55,349), North Carolina (+39,118), South Carolina (+29,214), Tennessee (+24,104), Arizona (+17,316), Georgia (+14,671), and Colorado (+11,341). At the other end of the spectrum, California (-100,397), New York (-71,987), Illinois (-28,609), New Jersey (-19,370), Massachusetts (-15,378), Maryland (-13,628), and Pennsylvania (-12,095) lost the largest numbers of income tax filers.
The politicians running the big blue states are going to ask themselves, much like Cole’s bar patron, “Where, oh, where, oh, where, Did everyone go?”
Action Line: When you’re looking for a better America, begin your search with Your Survival Guy’s 2026 Super States. And tell me about your move and motivations by emailing me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com. Click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
