More New Yorkers moved to Florida in 2022 than any year in history

Publish date: 2024-08-11

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Dazed and abused by high taxes and rising crime, more New Yorkers fled to Florida in 2022 than any year in history, according to new data.

A staggering 64,577 Empire Staters exchanged their driver’s licenses for the Sunshine State version last year, according to figures from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

“They come in every day,” a staffer at a Jacksonville DMV office told The Post this week with a weary laugh. “I hear all the complaints. I feel like a therapist sometimes.”

The worker said the venting refugees harbor a long list of grievances — with taxes and eroding quality of life at the top of the list.

“It’s slowed down a little bit,” she said of the stampede. “But not by a whole lot, I can tell you that.”

There were 64,577 New Yorkers who exchanged their driver’s licenses for the Sunshine State version last year. Getty Images

Last year’s record-shattering number comfortably eclipsed the prior mark of 61,728 New Yorkers who made the Florida switch in 2021, according to the data.

Fashion designer Alvin Valley, who moved his main residence to Palm Beach, previously told The Post that the demographics of those moving south has expanded in recent years.

“First it was the billionaires,” he said. “Then it was the rich following behind them. Now you have the middle class.”

Billionaire Carl Icahn moved his operations from Fifth Avenue to Florida in 2020. NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

The license transfer metric is considered a reliable indicator of migration patterns as it suggests a lasting decision to relocate.

The 2022 exodus marks a 39% increase in outbound migration to Florida from New York compared to the last pre-pandemic year of 2019 — and a resounding 46% surge compared to just five years ago in 2017.

Despite the drawdown of most COVID-19 restrictions in New York, outgoing flights to Florida remained sharply elevated in recent months.

A total of 15,595 New Yorkers transitioned to the state in the final quarter of 2022, including more than 5,000 last month alone.

“They come in every day,” a staffer at a Jacksonville DMV office told The Post this week. Getty Images/iStockphoto

While that figure is down by 8% compared to the last quarter of 2021, it remained 30% higher than the same stretch in 2019 and 45% more than the comparable period five years ago.

Dozens of other states — including New Jersey, California, Illinois and Pennsylvania — all set new records for outbound migration to Florida in 2022, the figures show.

New Jersey created the second-highest number of new Floridians in 2022, with 32,184 license swaps, up from 32,083 in 2021.

Fashion designer Alvin Valley moved his main residence to Palm Beach. Getty Images

California surpassed 30,000 Florida license transfers for the first time in history in 2022 with 30,168 — up from 27,081 the prior year.

Last year’s number is up by a startling 98% from just five years ago, when only 15,199 Californians switched licenses to Florida.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has routinely leveraged his state’s population boom to tout his performance — and launch barbs at rival governors, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

As New York deals with crime and high taxes, people are leaving in droves. Getty Images

Sunshine State real estate brokers told The Post that recent Democratic electoral wins in states like New York, California, Illinois and Pennsylvania will likely keep incoming migration brisk.

“That’s where they were coming from before the elections,” a Sarasota agent observed. “So it makes sense that if nothing changes, we expect business to stay strong, let’s put it like that.”

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