This pattern is "not a surprise," said census demographer Marc Perry. "California is a very populous state and it's nearby [to its expanding neighbors], which are two of the features of migration," he said.
California lost a total of about 755,000 residents, the second-biggest drop in the country. New York had the nation's largest net migration to other states: 874,000 people.
California, the nation's most populous state, contributed to migration gains in most states; all but nine states and the District of Columbia welcomed more than 10,000 Californians in the late 1990s.
The bureau gathered data for the reports from questions on the census long form, which went to 1 in 6 individuals -- about 50 million people. They were asked whether they had lived at the same address five years previously; those who responded "no" were asked from where they had moved. "That's as good a sample size as you're going to get," Schachter said.
The Census Bureau has not released data tracking immigrant migration patterns. But a 2001 report by the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, found that California's foreign-born population began to stabilize for the first time in more than 100 years, dropping from 35% in 1995 to 30% over the next five years.
From 1995 to 1999, the number of immigrants in the state remained static, at about 8 million, according to the report. The shift indicates fewer immigrants choosing California as a destination and more foreign-born residents of the state moving to "nontraditional" states for immigrants, such as North Carolina and Kansas.
This change in California can be attributed to a combination of more-inviting economies in other states and congestion in California, said Michael Fix, the director of immigration studies at the Urban Institute. "Some of the job niches filled up, the housing filled up, the roads and the schools filled up" in California, Fix said.
Immigrants moving elsewhere constitute "the successful pursuit of higher wages," he said. Fix also noted the establishment of new cultural networks for immigrants in states such as Iowa and Arkansas, where they did not previously exist.
