 For the third consecutive year, Illinois has lost more residents than any other state, losing 37,508 people in 2016, which puts its population at the lowest it has been in nearly a decade, according to U.S. census data released Tuesday. But the numbers also take into account the number of people coming from abroad to live in Illinois, creating a net migration loss of 83,210 people. The plunge is mainly a result of the large number of residents leaving the state in the past year — about 114,144 in all — which couldn't be offset by new residents and births, according to census data measuring population from July 2015 to July 2016. Between 2015 and 2016, the nation grew at just 0.695 percent, lower than 0.7 percent between 2012 and 2013 and the lowest since 0.6 percent between 1936 and 1937, according to an analysis of the data. The past year has seen a downturn in births and a rise in deaths, as the number of deaths nationally was higher than it has been since at least 2000, according to census data. If it’s just weather, there’s not much we can do about it. We've seen Illinois showing weak job creation in downstate communities, losses in manufacturing jobs and people wanting to opt out of a high tax environment," Lucci said. This past year, just 27,839 residents left Michigan, 12,395 residents left Wisconsin and about 12,135 left Indiana, according to census data. “People leaving the state itself, just having fewer people around, is not necessarily bad for everyone else’s economic output,” Notowidigdo said.
– Illinois can claim a dubious honor for the third year running: It's the state that's lost the most people for the year, the Chicago Tribune reports. US Census data published Tuesday revealed the Prairie State said goodbye to 37,508 people between July 1, 2015, and July 1, 2016, per the Chicago Sun-Times, dropping its population to 12,801,539—the lowest it's been since 2009 or so. The numbers lost by the state have increased exponentially in this most recent three-year span: In 2014, the loss was 11,961 people; in 2015, it was 28,497. And per a Simon Public Policy Institute poll in October of 1,000 registered Illinois voters, 47% of residents said they'd like to move away. "When you have a big state like Illinois … lose population for three years in a row? That's cause for alarm," a Brookings Institution demographer tells the Tribune. So what's to account for the drop? First, there's been an exodus out of state (more than 114,000 left in 2016), mostly to warmer climes like Florida, Texas, and Arizona. But it's not just the weather that's causing defections: Michael Lucci, a VP with the conservative Illinois Policy Institute, says there are also better job opportunities elsewhere. Combine that with the overall national trend of decreasing birth numbers and more deaths, as well as a decline in the number of immigrants to Illinois specifically (especially Chicago, which has traditionally welcomed Mexican immigrants), and the influx of newbies isn't keeping up with the losses. "To reverse this trend, we need structural reforms to create more jobs, lower property taxes, improve our schools, and enact term limits to fix our broken political system," a rep for Gov. Bruce Rauner tells the Sun-Times. (Other states where people want out.)