Orange County Emigration

With a downtrodden economy tarnishing California's once-golden lure, fewer people are moving here from other states and more Californians are moving out than ever before, state officials said Wednesday. The result, according to a Department of Finance analysis of drivers' license records: Net migration out of California reached 100,000 drivers in the fiscal year that ended June 30, by far the largest exodus since the state started keeping track in 1970.

Adding to the evidence that the Golden State has been losing its allure, the Department of Motor Vehicles has reported for the third consecutive year that more licensed drivers moved out of California than moved in. A record total of 400,008 joined an exodus to other states last year, according to DMV statistics released this week. More than 40,000 of them left Orange County.

The year was 1987, and Francine Johnson was living in Louisiana's Cajun country, without a job. Her home town, Jeanerette, population 5,000, held little promise, so on a whim, the 23-year-old packed her bags and headed west for an unfamiliar region called Orange County. "In college I had researched areas where companies were growing, and Orange County kept cropping up as a place that was doing well," said Johnson, now 28, living in Irvine and working for a Costa Mesa advertising company.

With a downtrodden economy tarnishing California's once-golden lure, fewer people are moving here from other states and more Californians are moving out than ever before, state officials said Wednesday. The result, according to a Department of Finance analysis of drivers' license records: Net migration out of California reached 100,000 drivers in the fiscal year that ended June 30, by far the largest exodus since the state started keeping track in 1970.

Adding to the evidence that the Golden State has been losing its allure, the Department of Motor Vehicles has reported for the third consecutive year that more licensed drivers moved out of California than moved in. A record total of 400,008 joined an exodus to other states last year, according to DMV statistics released this week. More than 40,000 of them left Orange County.

All that traffic leaving Orange County on the Riverside Freeway may represent something more than the daily commute. More Orange County residents migrated to neighboring Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties in the past year than moved to the county from those areas. Nationally, Orange County continued to attract more people from other states than it lost to them--but just barely.

The year was 1987, and Francine Johnson was living in Louisiana's Cajun country, without a job. Her home town, Jeanerette, population 5,000, held little promise, so on a whim, the 23-year-old packed her bags and headed west for an unfamiliar region called Orange County. "In college I had researched areas where companies were growing, and Orange County kept cropping up as a place that was doing well," said Johnson, now 28, living in Irvine and working for a Costa Mesa advertising company.

All that traffic leaving Orange County on the Riverside Freeway may represent something more than the daily commute. More Orange County residents migrated to neighboring Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties in the past year than moved to the county from those areas. Nationally, Orange County continued to attract more people from other states than it lost to them--but just barely.