Study says more New Yorkers moved out than in across every income level last year

New York saw outflows across income levels

A Citizens Budget Commission update released in April 2026 said New York City saw net domestic outmigration across every income group in 2025. That was the clearest new warning in the report. More residents moved to other parts of the United States than moved in from elsewhere, no matter how much they earned.

The group said that pattern matters because the city depends on a broad mix of workers, families, and taxpayers. Official city planning estimates showed New York City had about 8.585 million residents in July 2025, roughly unchanged from a year earlier, but the migration trend showed the recovery had clearly weakened.

Domestic outmigration worsened in 2025

That warning became clearer in the city’s domestic migration numbers. In 2025, nearly 114,000 more New York City residents moved to other parts of the country than arrived from other parts of the United States.

That was worse than the year before and showed that the city still had not solved its retention problem. The loss was below the extreme departures seen during the worst pandemic period, but it still marked a meaningful setback.

New York City had looked more stable in 2023 and 2024. In 2025, that stability weakened as domestic outmigration remained deeply negative, adding pressure to the broader population picture.

International migration fell sharply

That domestic loss became harder to offset because international migration dropped sharply in 2025. The New York City comptroller said net international migration added nearly 66,000 residents to the city in 2025, only about 30% of the 2024 level.

For two years, stronger international migration had helped support the city’s recovery from earlier pandemic losses. In 2025, that support weakened fast. The shift mattered because New York City has long relied on international newcomers to replenish population, workers, and households.

When that inflow slowed while domestic outmigration stayed high, the city lost one of its strongest demographic supports and became more exposed.

Lower and middle earners stayed under pressure

The burden of leaving did not fall evenly across the city. The Citizens Budget Commission said lower- and middle-income residents remained under special pressure, even as every income group posted net domestic outmigration in 2025.

The group tied that pattern to affordability and the difficulty of raising a family in New York City. That fit a broader trend already visible in city data.

Families searching for more space, lower housing costs, and a more manageable daily budget have been more likely to look outside the five boroughs. The result is a city that still attracts wealth and talent but struggles harder to keep many working households.

Little-known fact: New York State had a population of 20 million people in the 2025 Census estimate. The state was estimated at 20,002,427 on July 1, 2025.

Residents cited cost, safety, and space

Those pressures also appeared in resident survey results. The Citizens Budget Commission found that 76% of respondents cited affordability as a reason to consider leaving New York City. Another 73% cited safety, while 60% cited living space.

Those numbers showed that housing costs were not the only issue weighing on residents. Many New Yorkers also felt cramped or dissatisfied with daily life in the city.

The same survey found fewer than 34% rated New York City’s quality of life as excellent or good in 2025, down from 51% in 2017. That slide in satisfaction helps explain why outmigration spread across neighborhoods and income groups.

Many movers stayed near the region

Even so, many residents who left New York City did not move far away. The Citizens Budget Commission said a large share headed to Long Island, Westchester, and nearby states such as New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Others moved farther south or west, including to Florida, California, and Texas.

That pattern showed that many former city residents still wanted access to the metro area’s jobs, culture, and family networks, but no longer wanted the same costs or housing limits inside the city itself. Westchester County’s population rose by 6,578 from 2024 to 2025, reaching 1,015,743, which underscored the continued pull of nearby suburbs.

Income losses matter for tax revenue

That migration story also carried real tax consequences. Between 2019 and 2023, New Yorkers who moved out of the city earned $68 billion more than those who moved in, according to Citizens Budget Commission data.

About $23 billion of that income shifted to other parts of New York State, about $14 billion to Florida, and about $2 billion to Texas. That matters because high-earning households play an outsized role in city finances.

Households earning more than $1 million a year make up less than 1% of city tax filers but pay 40% of city personal income taxes. A small number of departures can therefore hit revenue hard.

Budget strain is growing too

Those migration losses are hitting at a time when New York City already faces budget pressure. In March 2026, the Citizens Budget Commission said the combined fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027 budget gap totaled $9.4 billion.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s preliminary fiscal 2027 budget used reserves and proposed a property tax increase to help close near-term gaps.

Budget analysts warned that this approach did not solve the city’s long-term problem and left New York less prepared for a recession or major federal cuts. That means population retention is not just a demographic concern. It is tied directly to the city’s ability to fund services and plan ahead.

Family losses are showing up clearly

The city’s struggle to keep families has become one of the clearest parts of this trend. NYCEDC said that in 2023 alone, New York City lost on net nearly 50,000 residents ages 0 to 18 or 30 to 39. Those age groups capture many parents and children, which helps show why leaders are worried about long-term family retention.

NYCEDC also said the city now has 80,000 fewer young families with children than it did in 2000. That does not just affect housing demand. It also changes school enrollment, neighborhood stability, and the kinds of services communities need as the city’s household mix keeps shifting.

Jobs grew, but growth slowed sharply

At the same time, the city’s labor market sent mixed signals. The Citizens Budget Commission said New York City had 141,000 more private-sector jobs than in January 2020, meaning overall employment had moved above its pre-pandemic level. But that top line hid a slowdown underneath.

NYCEDC said the private sector added only 5,100 jobs in the first seven months of 2025. That was far weaker than the pace in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Lower-wage sectors such as construction, food service, accommodation, and retail remained weaker than before the pandemic, indicating that recovery had not been even across the local economy.

Housing costs kept climbing anyway

That uneven recovery came alongside stubborn housing costs. The Citizens Budget Commission said asking rents in New York City were 13.4% higher than they would have been if the pre-pandemic trend had continued. The group also said rents were rising nearly twice as fast as they did before the pandemic.

NYCEDC added more evidence of cost pressure across daily life. Since 2019, housing costs in the metro area have risen by 24%, utilities by 37%, groceries by 27%, and childcare and tuition by 19%. Those increases help explain why residents continued to leave even without a major headline population crash. Affordability remained one of the city’s biggest unsolved problems.

Shelter pressure stayed very high

While migration slowed in some areas, shelter pressure remained high. The New York City comptroller said that from September 2022 through March 2026, the combined citywide shelter census of asylum seekers and Department of Homeless Services clients rose 53%, from roughly 56,600 to 86,570 people.

The asylum seeker share of that total later fell from its January 2024 peak, but the full shelter count still stayed elevated. That meant the city continued to face major service and budget demands even as international migration cooled.

New York City, therefore, had to manage two realities at once: weaker demographic momentum and an expensive social support burden that had not gone away.

More people are leaving New York as high costs and other pressures make the state harder to afford. Find out more about 14 brutal reasons why people are fleeing New York in 2026 and what is driving this trend.

Leaders see a warning for the city

Taken together, the 2025 data pointed to a larger warning about New York City’s future. The Citizens Budget Commission said broad-based domestic outmigration showed that many differently situated New Yorkers no longer found the city’s value proposition compelling.

The group also noted that the city’s population had already been declining before the pandemic, then fell by nearly half a million residents between April 2020 and July 2022.

The latest numbers did not show a total collapse, but they did show a weaker recovery and a less secure footing. For city leaders, that raises the same core challenge: make New York more affordable, more functional, and easier to stay in.

Rising housing costs are putting more financial pressure on households across parts of New York. Find out more about how housing costs are putting pressure on households in parts of New York and why affordability remains a growing concern.

What do you think is pushing New Yorkers out across every income group? Share your thoughts below.

This slideshow was made with AI assistance and human editing.

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