Listen to this articleThe number of people who moved from Long Island totaled 110,000 between 2017 and 2022, according to a new report by the Long Island Association. This amount is roughly equivalent to the loss of the entire population of the City of Long Beach, Village of Mineola, Town of Riverhead and Town of Southold combined.
Released Thursday, the report suggests that affordability, housing costs and other factors play a role in those leaving Long Island.
The report points to “the urgency to address our most pressing challenges,” LIA President and CEO Matt Cohen said in a letter introducing the report.
Those challenges include more affordable and available housing, safe and accessible childcare, sustainable jobs of the future and easing the tax burden so that “our residents can afford to live here and our businesses can afford to thrive here,” Cohen said.
The LIA will now “continue to advocate for federal, state and local policies that contribute to the economic growth of Nassau and Suffolk counties,” Cohen said.
Still, the “in-migration deficit” was mitigated somewhat by the number of people moving to Nassau and Suffolk from other parts of the state during the height of COVID, with 80% coming from New York City seeking “suburbs with lower density’.
Most of those who left Long Island between 2017 and 2021 headed to other states, with the top 10 being Florida, New Jersey, California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Texas, Virginia and Maryland, according to the report.
Households moving to Long Island have higher median incomes than those leaving the region, especially among local movers, according to the study. In 2021, those moving to Long Island from other parts of the state had a median household income of $146,200, while those leaving Long Island for other parts of the state had a median household income of $90,600 . That compares to a median household income for Nassau and Suffolk of $119,300.
After a surge in pandemic 2020, median household incomes of those moving from other states to Long Island stabilized in 2021 at about $100,000, while those leaving Long Island for other states had median incomes of approximately $83,000, the report said.
In 2021, those who moved to Long Island from the rest of New York State were employed in some of Long Island’s largest industries, including hospitals (8.8%), colleges and universities (6.6%), construction (6.3%), public safety (5.7%) ) and K-12 schools (5.3%), according to the report.
In 2021, the top industries employing Hamels from other countries include computer and data processing (9.7%), hospitals (9.5%), childcare (8.4%), construction (5.4%) and colleges and universities (4.4%), according to Industries in which total employment on Long Island is greater than employment for people moving to Long Island from other states are construction, schools K-12, the food and beverage establishments.
For those moving from Long Island to the rest of New York state, notable employment industries include food and beverage (14.2 percent) and colleges and universities (7.6 percent), according to the report.
The prominence of the banking and equity investment sectors as the top employment industries for out-of-state movers to Long Island reflects New York’s central role as the top destination for in-state movers to Long Island, according to the report. The presence of K-12 schools, which employ 10.1% of Long Island workers, indicates that Long Island produces a surplus of K-12 workers who seek employment outside of Long Island.
