People in Los Angeles County in California might be asking, “where’s everybody going?”
According to the latest U.S. Census data, between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025, some 53,421 residents left the county. That’s the largest decline in the U.S., according to a report by Fox News.
Los Angeles County has fallen from about 10 million residents in 2020 to roughly 9.7 million now, Fox said.
“There is a real sense of burnout. They are paying insane taxes and getting absolutely nothing in return,” RIVANI founder Robert Rivani, who has seen a big migration of companies moving their headquarters to his Miami building from California — told Fox News Digital. “People feel like they’re living in a place that’s draining them financially and in exchange they’re dealing with rising crime, shrinking services, and a sense that everyone around them is trying to leave, too.”
“When I moved my family and my company here, everyone thought I was crazy,” Rivani continued. “They were convinced LA was going to bounce back and that the problems were temporary. I saw the writing on the wall, and Miami has proven over and over that we made the right call.”
The problem is multilayered, one real estate agent said.
“It isn’t just one factor, it’s the breaking point phenomenon. The taxes, the lack of safety, the red tape,” Compass’ Chad Carroll told Fox News Digital. “I have a client from California whose home was broken into twice in the past six months.”
Building Businesses, Wealth
Carroll cited politics as a basis for the problem.
“These are individuals who have spent their lives building businesses and wealth,” Carroll added, “and they feel that California has become a place that takes everything and gives back very little in terms of safety, infrastructure and opportunity.”
The fleeing Angelenos are seeking areas with lower living costs and different political climates, Fox News said. Census data indicate that Riverside and San Bernardino gained 21,131 residents from Los Angeles County, while Las Vegas saw a boost of more than 21,000 people last year.
Fox reported that Carroll and Rivani argue people are gravitating toward places where “their money stretches further and they feel welcome.”
Both also warned that a shrinking population serves “a direct hit” to Los Angeles’ financial backbone.
“Real estate value is driven by demand and the quality of the surrounding tax base. When the top 1% flee, they take the tax revenue that funds the parks, the police and the schools with them, and that has a major trickle-down effect,” Carroll said. “You can’t lose 300,000 residents, specifically high-earners, and expect your property values to keep pace with the growth we’re seeing in the Sunbelt.”
Rivani added: “Those services are what keep a city functional. If you don’t have the tax base to support them, everything declines. And when the government’s only answer is to tax whoever is left even more, you create a vicious cycle where even more people pack up and go.”
Population Drops
Fox noted that Los Angeles isn’t alone, as other high-tax, high-regulation hubs in California also saw significant population drops. Orange County lost 8,520 residents; San Diego lost 5,294; and Ventura County saw a decline of 2,580.
In recent months, many wealthy Californians have relocated across state lines, with top luxury developers previously telling Fox News Digital that more than $126 million in sales were secured in just 60 days from buyers in California and New York — driven by California’s proposed 5% one-time billionaire tax and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s talk of higher property taxes.
“Los Angeles is not the Hollywood star it once was, and I don’t think it can return to that. The government running it today has created a reality that people don’t want to live in, and it’s extremely hard to reverse that kind of decline. Once a city loses its shine, it’s almost impossible to get it back,” Rivani said. “The polls show leading candidates for governor are Republican, which tells you how fed up people are with the direction of the state. It would take a lot of reform to bring it back to its glory days.”
The out migration from California spiked about five years ago in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by the Public Policy Institute of California, which said that remote work freed many employees to live in a cheaper place while keeping their California job.
According to the institute, in more recent years California has lost people to the rest of the country even as the number moving out has eased.
Low-Tax States
Californians, the PPIC said, favor nearby states over states farther away and high-income Californians show a marked preference for low-tax states.
But as prices rise outside California, those moving out have become more selective about where they move, the institute noted.
People move to bigger places over smaller ones, the institute stated, and to closer states over those more distant.
The institute noted that California has a substantial net loss to Texas (21,438) and Florida (12,645) in part because they have large populations to begin with.
Relative to the destination state’s population, California has a disproportionate loss to Nevada (13 per 1,000 residents) and Idaho (10 per 1,000 residents), in part because they are close.
According to the institute, other states receiving large numbers of Californians include the nearby states of Washington (17,475), Arizona (14,465), and Oregon (9,064).
In the last few years low-income Californians have become more likely—and high-income Californians less likely—to move to states with cheaper housing prices, the institute said. That, in part, reflects the spread of the housing crisis to other states, the institute noted.
