Illinois’ Population Has Declined For The 10th Consecutive Year
People are leaving Illinois in droves and it doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon.
Things are so bad, only one state has a bigger outbound population according to Atlas Van Lines.
Illinois sits at 62.5% outbound migration only behind New York's 66.4%. It's not much better anywhere you look in the Midwest.
The Midwest region registered the most outbound states with Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, and Iowa ranking in the top 10. For the fourth year in a row, the Midwest registered zero inbound states.
So why are so many people leaving Illinois and the Midwest? Where are they going? Do jobs and weather have something to do with it?
The same question was posed on Quora. Here's an unscientific explanation as to why people leave the midwest:
It is also a very boring place to live unless you live in one of the major cities such as Minneapolis or Chicago. Then there's the issue of the weather. Why would you live somewhere it's only sunny 40% of the time and the scenery is cornfields when you can live somewhere where it's sunny 80% of the time and you're 20 minutes from the beach?
Ah, the beach. I like the beach too. Why haven't I moved yet? For most of us, the reason why folks like us continue to live in the midwest where let's just be honest here, the weather sucks, is family.
Despite all of the issues the state and the midwest have, this is the place where most of us were born. We've got family, roots and so many other reasons why we don't just pack up and move away.
The biggest issue is, how do we get the population to increase in Illinois? What do you think needs to change? Anything? Let us know.