IRS: Rhode Island has net loss of 3,000 in latest data analysis

(The Center Square) – If Rhode Island were hoping for a big influx of people moving there from other states, they would be disappointed by newly released statistics from the Internal Revenue Service.

The state actually had a net loss of 3,027 residents from 2021-22 as the number of Rhode Islanders who moved to other states was higher than newcomers arriving, according to the study.

Rhode Island ranked 30th of 50 states in net migration . Florida and Texas were ranked first and second nationally, attracting the most people. California and New York, meanwhile, had the largest losses of residents due to internal migration, the numbers show.

But many Rhode Island residents aren’t really looking to attract a crowd of newcomers from the rest of the country, Melanie Brasher, a professor and demographer at the University of Rhode Island.

“We almost want it to be a secret,” Brasher said. “We’re not like Florida where we are telling everybody, ‘Come here. We’re great.”

The state is proud of its educational system, which includes Brown University and the University of Rhode Island, and is near Boston with its many colleges and universities.

Those schools attract many people to move to Rhode Island to teach or conduct research, Brasher said.

People also move back to Rhode Island to be closer to family, she said.

“They may have kids and want to be near grandparents,” she said.

The state, which is the smallest geographically in the United States, has only slightly more than 1 million residents. In population, only Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware and Montana are smaller.

But at the same time, it is close to the largest northeastern cities such as New York and Boston. The increase in remote working that came about during the COVID-19 pandemic made those commutes easier, Brasher said.

“If you only have to go in two or three days a week, it makes it much more feasible to live in one state and work in another,” she said.

Rhode Island, however, isn’t an inexpensive place to live. Housing prices also increased during the pandemic and have stayed high.

“There is real lack of affordable housing and housing in general,” Brasher said. “We’ve had that problem at the University of Rhode Island, where people can’t find housing anywhere near campus. People have to live much farther north.”

Some Rhode Island residents, particularly the elderly, may also be attracted the warmer climate and the lower taxes in other states such as Florida, said Brasher.

But in the summers, Rhode Island attracts tons of tourists. They are temporary residents, not counted in population numbers but still good for the state’s economy, Brasher said.