Illinois Keeps Hemorrhaging Young People
“A dwindling youth population means shrinking potential — not just economically, but in civic energy, creativity and community life. That’s bad news for a state that depends on young people to power its workforce and its future.”
The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board has a warning for Illinois: Change or else.
Why?
Because youngins are leaving the state for college and not coming back.
Why?
Because my home state has turned into a socialist hellhole.
Illinois has become the oldest state in the country, and it’s not getting better:
To put it bluntly, our pipeline is drying up. We’ve lost than 185,000 people ages 18 and younger compared with 2020, a 6% decrease. Cook County lost the bulk of these youngsters, with its 18-and-under population decline accounting for over half of the state’s total.
Meanwhile, the retiree population grows. Illinois’ median age is now 39.4 — nearly five years older than in 2000 — and rising steadily.
Twenty-five years ago, Illinois was younger than the rest of the U.S. on average — today, that’s no longer true.
Yes, the U.S. population is aging overall — but Illinois is aging faster than most.
That’s true for several reasons.
First, outmigration, particularly of younger people and families.
Illinois faces a demographic double bind. Not only are fewer women of childbearing age remaining in the state because of persistent outmigration, but those who stay are having fewer children than their counterparts elsewhere. Our birth rate already lags behind most states — particularly those in the South and West — and the gap is growing. The long-term implications for our workforce, tax base and economic vitality are hard to ignore.
The editorial board hits the nail on the head: “A dwindling youth population means shrinking potential — not just economically, but in civic energy, creativity and community life. That’s bad news for a state that depends on young people to power its workforce and its future.”
Illinois Policy (a great website!) wrote in March that Illinois lost a resident “every 9 minutes and 21 seconds from July 2023 to July 2024.”
I mean: “Illinois lost a total of 56,235 residents to other states from July 2023 to June 2024.” Again, socialism:
Surveys of those who have left the state – where taxes are not a response option – showed the major reasons Illinoisans have chosen to leave have been for better housing and employment opportunities, both of which have been made worse by poor public policy in Illinois.
High taxes were the No. 1 reason why Illinoisans considered leaving the state. Polling from NPR Illinois and the University of Illinois found 61% of Illinoisans thought about moving out of state in 2019, and the No. 1 reason was taxes. The Paul Simon Public Policy Institute found 47% of Illinoisans wanted to leave the state, and “taxes are the single biggest reason people want to leave” with 27% of respondents citing taxes as the motive for departing in 2016. More recent polling conducted by Echelon Insights in 2023 substantiated those sentiments.
Gov. JB Pritzker knows losing young people is a problem, even if he brushes off the concerns of others, because he signed bills to make “college more accessible and affordable.”
The Illinois Board of Higher Education pointed out that almost “half of Illinois high school graduates who go on to college pursue degrees out of state.”
Pritzker said: “There is a 70% likelihood that when they get to whatever that university is outside of Illinois, they’re not coming back. That’s a real problem, so we want to keep our best and brightest in the state.”
My parents moved back because my mom wanted to be near her sisters. She even lives down the street from one of them.
I know my mom regrets it, not just because my brother and I live in Oklahoma, but because Illinois continues to spiral out of control.
I love Illinois. I love Chicago. Both are home. Both will always be home, even though I adore and love Oklahoma.
I know I say this all the time, but I’m not going to stop because it breaks my heart. I would return home in a heartbeat if the state didn’t suck so much.
I would even move back if it showed any signs of moving away from socialism.
No one has seen that with the elections of Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
I was born in Illinois and am now an executor of a late relative’s estate in my hometown; I have to return every month to work on closing out and estate with many moving parts.
I love the place but there is no way I would ever move back because there is nothing to give me any hope that it isn’t dying.
Over the decades, my hometown (the State capital) lost major manufacturing employers (Pillsbury, Allis-Chalmers, Sangamo Electric to name a few) resulting now in government being the biggest employer–and we all know how government likes to grow and grow.
It’s a shame to arrive in town around lunch time, exiting the Interstate, and seeing a ghost town instead of a bustling downtown that I remember from the days that I spent some summers with my grandparents.
It’s true that you can’t go home again, but it’s painful to see that the powers that be want it to be exactly how it is.
I miss the vibe of the city. I miss nothing else.
We moved in 2021, the net outmigration was 47k.
My husband and I were two of the residents that left between July 2023 and 2024–we left July 12, 2023. Husband was a resident since 1974, and I, since I married him in 1991. 27 years in the Chicago burbs. 24 years commuting to the Loop. So glad to be gone.
“There is a 70% likelihood that when they get to whatever that university is outside of Illinois, they’re not coming back. That’s a real problem, so we want to keep our best and brightest in the state.”
Apparently there are no mirrors in the Governor’s mansion because the reason they’re leaving is you.
Well, not just you but your fellow politicians and their progressive polices.
And if we then turn to the inner cities, the population is busy consuming itself through rampant crime and murder. Black lives don’t matter to blacks apparently and the long train of abuses from the Democrat Party to keep them beholden and voting with them in order to keep the gravy train going is having its very predictable effects.
This much I will say: when these state governments go belly up as they must, the federal government must not step in to save them. Revert them to a territory, remove their senators and representatives from Congress.
Can that be done? Reverting a state to a territory? This is, just to be sure, an honest question, because it’s an idea I’ve heard before, but don’t know if it’s actually possible.
We can’t carve a new state from a state’s territory without that state’s permission. As the point of a territory is to make it a new state, it seems like that would also be forbidden without the state’s permission (unlikely.) However, West Virginia was carved out of Virginia post-Civil War with more than a little force applied, so precedent suggests that this permission need not be entirely voluntary.
We don’t have laws as to how a state would resolve or declare bankruptcy – and that’s probably purposeful, as making such laws would make the declaration more likely and thereby immediately lower states’ credit ratings. Would an ad hoc process allowing bankruptcy at the cost of reverting to a territory actually fly? I’m really not at all certain of the answer – curious what others think.
Maybe a Three State Soluton: Chicago, Springfield, and Illinois.
Springfield is at least not as knee-jerk Dem as it used to be; there are two parties and they have competitive elections from what I’ve seen.
As the old saw goes, the government that gives everything, takes everything.
Born & bred in Illinois; moved in 2021 because I couldn’t stand the taxes and corrupt politics any more. Gov. FatAss might have been the final straw, but he wasn’t the only straw.
The problem is not the state, its geography, or its people. The problem is the politicians and the hellhole in the NE corner by the lake.
“Illinois has become the oldest state in the country”
The big irony is that Florida has reversed that status due entirely to their new liberty-oriented politics.
Mother’s family moved Illinois to California in 1940. They knew what a cesspool Chicago was back then.
Out of the frying pan into the fire.
California was a great state until the Dems took over. The progressives just followed my grandparents there.
California was incredible through the 1970s.
The prime directive for a modern politician: acquire power and keep it. As such, the future is always someone else’s problem. As Keynes Keynes famously said: “In the long run we are all dead.” Gov. JB Pritzker has little to no concern about what happens to Illinois in the long run. To understand his policies go to statisticalatlas dot com and checkout the demographics for Illinois and Chicago. Look at race, ancestry, income, food stamp usage. Of course the state will eventually end up running to Washington with a tin cup. New York City did exactly that in 1975, and it got a bailout. Fortunately for NYC, inflation hit and they could pay back the loan with cheap dollars.
Modern politicians have become professional politicians with little or no experience or accomplishments outside of government. My first experience with a pro come with Tom Bates, my CA Assemblyman, where I learned how these guys operate. When term limits came to CA, Bates sued to stop it. Then he became a long-serving mayor of Berkeley. He was very similar to my Congressman Eric Swalwell, another pro.
So I ran away from CA to Texas just as I ran away from NYC to CA. The hordes are pouring into Texas from CA just as they are running out of Illinois. Will most of the middle class end up in Texas leaving CA, NY, MA … to the Third World? Where do I run next?
I’ll be moving back to Illinois only when I die because my burial plot is there, next to my late wife. We fled (“fleeded”) the People’s Republic of Illinois in 1979, and never looked back.
I’m wondering if, once I’m dead, they will somehow be able to tax me.
Or worse, vote.
If your burial plot is in crook county, you will be voting for a democrat/socialist candidate in all future elections. LOL
I’ve never seen so many Illinois license plates in my town here in north-central Indiana. The flood into my burg is akin to East Berliners fleeing across Checkpoint Charlie before the Wall went up. The problem is that not a few refugees from Illinois, particularly from Chicagoland, are bringing their idiotic voting habits and attitudes with them–with a resulting increase in criminal activity up to and including drug, gangs, and homicides. As it is, the situation in Illinois is now so bad that 1/3 of Illinois counties are actively exploring to get out from under the Springfield/East St. Louis/Chicago Axis and join Indiana.
Sort of like the initials, STD. Pritzker and Johnson have the same effect on people.
There is an easy fix for Illinois youth problem. We’ll identify the most hardened work aversive criminal illegal aliens under the age of 25 and ship them all to Illinois. That will fix the youth imbalance in their population as well as satisfy their desires to be a sanctuary state and city.
I wonder what the stats are on out migration for retirees? Assuming the College stats hold then empty nesters hitting retirement have less family ties to hold them with their adult children off somewhere else. Fond memories are great but neighbourhoods change. Pining for some sort of idyllic nostalgia seems like a mistake if one has the option to bail out. Especially in a place where crime is rampant, basic services declined and the govt refers on insolvency despite high taxation.
I would think the out migration is higher for younger people. The only reason is their salaries are low and taxes are high. Illinois does not tax social security or pension/401k income. (for now). As soon as they start taxing retirement income, retirees will flee in much higher numbers.
Many States with far better weather don’t tax pensions or SSA. Some have no income tax at all. I’d think a suburban home or a nice condo in Chicago would sell for a pretty penny Donalds to less urban areas of the Nation. Take the proceeds and a 1031 exchange to avoid some federal tax on a home purchase in the Sunbelt. Moving out of there to an area with no socialist Cray Cray, right to work laws, lower taxes overall, better public services, a tough on crime climate and no tolerance for any homeless or squatter nonsense would seem a no brainer. Especially with adult children elsewhere and the State Local govt raising taxes to meet their unsustainable public pension and public spending. Waiting until property values nosedive to try and escape due to a sense of nostalgic longing for a time that has come and gone is, IMO, not a good idea.
There is a bigger truth behind the exodus of young adults out of Illinois. There is a dwindling supply of young workers to support a bloated and frightfully expensive pension programs for government workers. Without young workers willing to be taxed into poverty in order to support pensioner’s there will be a day of revoking coming very soon. Let’s be frank, I DON’T CARE!! The sooner Chicago and Illinois goes bankrupt the better it will be for Illinois and the nation as a whole.
Wine-lady Karens, AWFLs, and blue-haired trans-women don’t hatch off many spawn, and most of them are idiots by blood. When there’s nothing left to stay for, then the good get going.
You just described Washington State for me, although Washington’s descent has been far steeper and scarier than Illinois. That is very scary.
Here’s what I saw:
#1 The masses buying the blind hatred and constant vilification of Republicans.
#2 Liberal imports. Liberals love their abortion and gay marriage. When they flee one hell hole, they choose another that has those ear marks.
#3 Economic opportunity: So long as there are high paying jobs, the liberals will flock to these urban centers. So long as there is endless welfare the poor will also flock to these areas.
Combine 1-3 and that is key.
I know how this will play out through the next 10 years. People will continue to flee. Especially conservatives. That is not a horrible fact because the top 5-10 red state they are fleeing too will gain electoral college votes and house seats. I think 2030 is the line in the sand.
By 2040 the birth rate and long term economic impact will have solidified the outcome. Productive child bearing members of society (who love big families) will have transformed the economic and political make up of the country.
Washington State’s schools are facing a double doom loop. #1 Everyone is pullling their kid out due to the LGBTQ+ indoctrination and #2 The birthrate in Wa is plummeting. They were sounding the alarm blaming covid, but they full on admitted that the birth rate was going to collapse their kindergarten classes in 5 years. There was no COVID baby boom there. It had been declining since ~2010.
These states LOVE one party rule. That one party rule (in their direction) can only be achieved and maintained by creating the worst hell hole imaginable and run by the worst criminal enterprise the Dem machine can muster. Once you drive the others out, you have power forever. It truly is Satan ruling hell rather than serving in heaven.
Wa, Or, and Ca are beautiful states. I really miss northwest summers compared to the red state south. However a little bit of AC and making the most of cool early mornings gets me by.
Was chatting with a realtor this morning. The only thing keeping Portland alive at the moment is the housing cost differential with Kalifornia. A few years back, people were selling a $1.5M house there and buying a nicer and cheaper house in Portland for $600K. Around now that Kalifornia place has dropped to $1.2M with the exodus bringing prices down, and the Portland house is now up to $800K. But that isn’t the case so much for the nicer houses in Portland proper, because people with that kind of money are going elsewhere since Portland and Oregon have instituted high net income add-on taxes. Those in Multnomah county are also moving to adjacent Clackamas and washington Couties where they will escape the add ons. Not day and night, but a 1-2% annual trend adds up over a 10 year stretch. The schools are in a panic because those who are moving here are frequently childless and in 10 years they expect to close 3 of the 11 high schools. Well, that is the legitimate people. The illegals bolster those numbers, and is one reason they are fighting to keep them here, as funding is related to headcount, even if those who cause the headcount increase don’t contribute to the system.
So even though people are still voting blue (assuming no fraud), they are increasingly voting with their feet and their back pocket. At some point that might not be enough and they will drift red as a survival tactic. I have reduced my ties and can be out of here inside a month
Not surprised. Cant afford to live there.
It’s hard to blame the young people. The State steals from them constantly and offers nothing worth paying for in return.
It was noted on another blog today that the next civil war will be fought with U-Haul trucks and not firearms as those who would be free voluntarily leave the state residents who prefer being in a totalitarian polity to their own devices. There may be some truth to that.
However, it is a fact that most states of any size are a mixture of political leanings. And the mixture is not perfect. In general it can be said that the larger the urban area, the more likely it is to be a Leftist stronghold and to try to control the state. It is going to be interesting when and if a state reaches the point where those outside those urban areas will not put up with it. Already Leftist Federal District Judges are trying to tell the US Supreme Court to place their orders in a dark place. The respect for and rule of law are already on shaky ground.
It does not mean that it will automatically move to a “Meriam’s Corner” situation. It also does not mean that it definitely will not. However, urban areas by their nature are not self-sufficient and have to import goods, services, and utilities from outside their own territory. In short, from areas that are not as Leftist and totalitarian as the urban areas. What if instead of U-Haul trucks, it is delivery trucks that refuse to sell to those urban areas? Or if services are not available? Or if utilities have technical difficulties?
We may see an inadvertent example of this set up by the Left which does not believe in consequences for actions. The Peoples’ Democrat Republic of California has been at war with the petroleum industry and the entire concept of the proles using energy. They have been driving out refineries and the petrochemical industry with punitive measures and in about a year or so will have closed enough refineries so as to mean that there will not be enough fuel for transportation and/or power generation.
What is likely to happen in an overcrowded urban area that does not have enough supplies coming in, or fuel to get out?
Subotai Bahadur
Back in 1999 a co-worker asked if I was prepping for the millenium. They were sad after I told them that anyone who hadn’t started 10 years earlier was already too far behind.
I am still ramped up from 2016 – 2020, but the rate has back off a lot and I’d say that I am condition yellow, down from Orange from the summer of love.
So, you’re saying J.B. “Fat Boy” Pritzker has created “a socialist hellhole” ?
OK, I can see that
Leave a Comment