Despite New York City being a mecca for intellectuals, creatives, and financiers — New York State itself is losing more residents than any other US state.
Between 2016 and 2017, the state's net migration was a loss of more than 164,000 citizens.
Upstate New York seems to be the hardest hit area, with 42 of the 50 upstate counties recording a population loss since 2010, according to the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin.
When asked about the problem in September 2018, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo hypothesized that the cold winters in Upstate New York could be to blame.
"People will make demographic choices about where they want to live. Some of them are climate-based. Some of them are based for personal reasons. So the diminishing population in upstate is not new," he said, according to the Democrat & Chronicle.
Cuomo made the comments as he was running for reelection. His Republican opponent in the race, Marc Molinaro, said that it was high taxes that are driving people out.
"Upstate continues to struggle with the highest burden of property taxes of any region in the country while at the same time we lead the nation in out-migration," Molinaro said, according to Binghamton Homepage.
The New York Post spoke to emigrating New Yorkers in January, including one stay-at-home dad who cited the poor job market combined with a high cost of living as his family's reason to leave.
At the time, 38-year-old Mike Gehm and his fiancee planned to move to Lexington, Kentucky or a smaller town in West Virginia within a month.
"Jobs are limited around here … It's hard for me to find [one]," the stay-at-home-dad said.
He added: "I'm dropping $250 a month on electric. Everything is an outrageous price for us [up here]."
E.J. McMahon, the research director for the Empire Center for Public Policy, told the Post that "much more needs to be done to improve the basic climate for economic growth."
"It's just not dynamic enough to hold more of its people," McMahon said.