California's population has dropped by more than 500,000 since the COVID-19 pandemic began two years ago, and the exodus doesn't show any signs of ending.

The Los Angeles Times reported that between April 2020 and July 2022, the number of residents leaving exceeded the number of people moving in...by over 700,000.

California has lost more than 500,000 people between April 2020 & July 2022, 2nd only to New York, says a recent survey. People fleeing the once Golden State say higher rising housing prices & cost of living, long commutes, & crowds are some of the reasons. We’re talking about it pic.twitter.com/KdNpL6sSrs

— John and Ken (@johnandkenshow) February 15, 2023

Paul Ong, director at a research institution known as the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, argued that one major reason for the state's population decline is high housing prices.  Ong said:

While salaries in other regions and states are lower, the cost of housing is even lower. This means that they have a higher standard of living because of more disposable income and/or high chance of owning[.]

Ong's research demonstrated that most of the "departures" in Los Angeles County were from the leftist city itself.  From a Los Angeles Times article:

People moved 'away from the denser urban core, where COVID-19 risk was perceived as being higher. Remote work also added to this out-migration.'

Between July 2021 and July 2022, California lost more than 200,000 people, according to data from California's Department of Finance.  About half of the people were from Los Angeles County.

Many Californians have settled in neighboring states like Nevada and Utah.  However, Utah is dissuading them from moving to the Beehive State.

Utah's Republican governor, Spencer Cox, said  he would love for Californians to remain in their self-created hellscape:

This last census confirmed that Utah was the fastest-growing state over the past 10 years. Our biggest problems are more growth-related. We would love for people to stay in California instead of coming as refugees to Utah[.]

California is not alone in its population decline.  New York has lost over 300,000 residents since the pandemic began two years ago.

the 15 highest-tax states – including Illinois and New Jersey – lost 1.2 million people or 1% of their population during the same period. The population of the two biggest high-tax progressive states, New York and California, each lost more than 500,000 people each.

— Eli (@UpstateNYe) February 19, 2023

According to CBS News, over the course of eight months in 2020 (between March and November), 330,000 New York residents left the state entirely. 

More than 54,000 people moved to New Jersey, 31,000 to Florida, 23,000 to Connecticut, and 21,000 to California.

As California and New York populations declined, the populations of Florida and Texas increased.

Texas gained more than 880,000 people, and Florida gained about 700,000 people in the past two years.

In 2022, more New Yorkers moved to Florida than in any other year...but it's definitely not because of Democrat policies.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.