ILLINOIS POLICY INSTITUTE
Illinois Losing 1 Resident Every 5 Minutes to Out-Migration
by Michael Lucci
December 23, 2015

The U.S. Census Bureau report released Dec. 22 is compelling evidence that Illinois needs pro-growth, pro-jobs reforms. The report shows that Illinois recorded its first six-digit loss of residents to other states, with Illinois losing 105,000 more people to other states than it gained from July 2014 to July 2015. The “border war” losses were so bad that Illinois’ total population shrank by 22,000 people on the year, the worst ever. Similar to last year’s 2013-2014 data, Illinois is the only state in the region to have a shrinking population. Illinois’ loss of 105,000 people to other states tops last year’s loss of 95,000 people to other states, which was a record at the time. The Census population data, which looks broadly at the entire population and is more current than migration reports from the Internal Revenue Service, show that the exodus from Illinois has accelerated to an all-time high. READ MORE