Who moves to California? The wealthier and better educated, mostly
High taxes. Stifling regulations. Exorbitant housing costs. Freeway gridlock. Fires and floods.
Hand-wringing over an exodus of disillusioned Californians may be a Golden State pastime, the subject of political punditry and strung-out social media threads.
But the latest data are far from dire. The U.S. Census Bureau, in its newly released surveys for 2017, shows that California's net migration remained fairly stable. Since 2010, as the economic recovery took hold and housing prices skyrocketed, departures accelerated - but the number of newcomers rose steadily as well.
The state attracts a steady stream of college graduates, especially from the East Coast, even as many less-educated residents move to neighboring states - and to Texas - in search of a lower cost of living.
Consider that in 2017:
_More people left California (661,026) than arrived (523,131) from other U.S. states. But for the nation's most populous state, with 39 million residents, that amounted to a tiny fraction in net departures: just 0.35 percent.
_Among the 25-years-and-older set, the state lost a net 86,890 residents without bachelor's degrees, and just 4,443 with a four-year degree. It gained 11,653 people with graduate degrees.
_No state boasts more loudly of its attractions than Texas. Indeed, 63,174 people relocated from California to the nation's second-most populous state, more
