New research from the University of New Hampshire is trying to understand why people move out of the state.
The population growth in a state depends on how many people are born, die, move into the state, and move out. For New Hampshire, migration is important for the state’s population stability and gain.
“Because for the last 10 years or so, more people have died in New Hampshire than been born,” said Ken Johnson, a demographer at the Carsey School of Public Policy at UNH who conducted this research. ”So if the population of New Hampshire is going to stay the same or grow, it has to be from migration.”
UNH researchers have been trying to figure out what influences someone to migrate to or out of New Hampshire.
“What we found is that they often have multiple reasons for leaving,” Johnson said.
He listed the economy and cost of living, the political climate, the physical environment, the desire for change and adventure, and the relationships with friends and family both in and out of state as factors for why someone might stay or leave.
“Migration is one of the most complicated things that demographers study,” he said. “And what we’re finding is what we’ve known, which is that people come or they go for a lot of reasons, not just one.”
Johnson found that about 24% of people responding to their surveys said they might leave or they were likely to leave New Hampshire in the next five years. He said that while that seems like a significant number, it’s a smaller percentage compared to residents in other states, especially in New England. As much as 40% of people in Vermont and Connecticut said they would consider leaving those states.
They also found that the people most likely to consider leaving are younger and unmarried people. This is consistent with prior studies which found that a large amount of young New Hampshire residents leave the state to pursue higher education.
However, the researchers found that the likelihood of people leaving the state did not vary greatly across people with different household incomes or levels of education.
Ultimately, Johnson said, deciding whether to stay or leave a state depends on a matrix of different factors.
