A look at Long Island’s population shifts: report

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The number of people relocating from Long Island amounts to 110,000 between 2017 and 2022, according to a new Long Island Association report. This amount is roughly equivalent to losing the entire population of the City of Long Beach, Village of Mineola, Town of Riverhead and Town of Southold combined.

Released Thursday, the report suggests that affordability, housing costs and other factors come into play for those leaving Long Island.

The report points to “urgency to solve our most pressing challenges,” LIA President and CEO Matt Cohen said in a letter introducing the report.

Those challenges include more affordable and available housing, safe and accessible child care, sustainable jobs of the future, and alleviating the tax burden, so that “our residents can afford to live here and our businesses can afford to thrive here,” Cohen said.

Now, the LIA “will continue to advocate for federal, state, and local policies that contribute to the economic growth of Nassau and Suffolk” counties, Cohen said.

Still, the “domestic migration deficit,” was mitigated somewhat by the number of people moving to Nassau and Suffolk from other parts of the state during the height of COVID, with 80% coming from New York City seeking “lower density suburbs.”

Most of those leaving Long Island between 2017 and 2021 headed to other states, with the top 10 being Florida, New Jersey, California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Texas, Virginia, and Maryland, according to the report.

Households moving to Long Island have higher median incomes than those leaving the region, especially among instate movers, according to the study. In 2021, those moving to Long Island from other parts of the state had a median household income of $146,200, while those leaving Long Island for other parts of the state had median incomes of $90,600. This compares with a median household income for Nassau and Suffolk of $119,300.

After an uptick in the pandemic year of 2020, median household incomes of those moving from other states to Long Island stabilized in 2021 at around $100,000, while those leaving Long Island for other states had median incomes of an estimated $83,000, the report said.

In 2021, movers to Long Island from the rest of New York state were employed in some of Long Island’s largest industries, including hospitals (8.8%), colleges and universities (6.6%), construction (6.3%), public safety (5.7%), and K-12 schools (5.3%), according to the report.

In 2021, the leading industries employing movers from other states include computer and data processing (9.7%), hospitals (9.5%), childcare services (8.4%), construction (5.4%, and colleges and universities (4.4%), according to the report. The industries in which total Long Island employment is greater than employment for people moving to Long Island from other states are construction, K-12 schools, eating and drinking establishments.

For movers off Long Island to the rest of New York State, notable industries of employment include eating and drinking establishments (14.2%) and colleges and universities (7.6%), according to the report.

The prominence of the banking and stock-bonds-investments sectors as top employment industries for in-state movers off Long Island reflects the centrality of New York City as the largest destination for in-state Long Island movers, according to the report. The presence of K-12 schools, which employs 10.1% of Long Island workers, indicates that Long Island produces a surplus of K-12 workers who seek employment off of Long Island.