There’s no indicator quite as damning of a state’s failure to govern than the flight of its residents to other states. In Illinois’ case, the state is doubly damned as IRS migration data shows there’s not a single group of people that the state attracts more than it repels.
Everyone is leaving Illinois. Old and young, rich and poor, it doesn’t matter.
The latest data from the IRS shows Illinois lost a net 105,000 people to other states in 2020 due to out-migration. 53,000 of those leavers were the tax filers and the other 52,000 were their dependents.
Outmigration-deniers say the state’s losses are due to retirees seeking better weather. But the data shows the urge to leave is universal. Illinois lost tax filers from every age and income group in 2020.
Notably the biggest losses of residents were two that should be a big cause for concern: the prime-working-years age bracket of 26 to 35 (-13,448 filers) and the higher-income-class bracket of $100 to $200K (-12,915 filers). Illinois is losing its mobile young and its wealthy cohorts more than any other groups.
The IRS report provides hard, indisputable data on the movement of Americans between states. The department reviews tax returns annually to track when and where tax filers and their dependents move. The IRS has also broken out the ages and income brackets of filers since 2011.
This year’s report is based on tax returns filed in 2020 and 2021, covering taxpayers and their dependents who moved from one state to another between 2019 and 2020 (See appendix for changes in Wirepoints’ reporting methodology).
Read more here.
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