“With little notice, and even less concern, California has begun to resemble a Rust Belt state regarding its changing demographics.

An important and alarming report by the Manhattan Institute has documented the decades-long trend of domestic out-migration from California which, when coupled with a declining trend in natural population increase (births minus deaths), could result “in a situation similar to that of New York and the other states of the Midwestern Rust Belt in the last century, which have seen populations stagnate for decades, or even fall.”

The key take-away from the report is that California has lost 3.4 million more residents to other states than it has gained domestically. Our growth has been sustained only with robust (and now declining) foreign immigration, and a healthy (and now also declining) birth rate.” (Fox & Hounds Daily, September 27, 2012). Read it here.