Massachusetts stands to lose almost $1 billion in annual revenue by 2030 as high taxes and housing costs push wealthy residents to move elsewhere.
Migration out of Massachusetts to other US states accelerated during the pandemic as remote work made it more feasible to live farther from the office. If the current trend continues, more than 96,000 residents with a combined $19.2 billion in adjusted gross income are set to leave the state annually by 2030, according to a study by Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. This will cost Massachusetts about $961 million in income tax revenue each year, the study estimates.
Last year, Massachusetts lost about 39,000 residents to other states, more than ten times the pace of 2013, with Florida and New Hampshire among the top destinations.
Prime-age workers have accounted for the majority of the exodus in recent years, with the 26-to-34-year-old cohort seeing the highest volume of departures, according to the study. More than half of those leaving Massachusetts are high earners.
"If our workforce and population is not growing, then we can’t expect to have future economic growth," Mark Williams, the primary researcher on the study and a lecturer at Boston University, said during a presentation on Tuesday. The persistence of remote work policies — particularly among the knowledge-based industries that dominate in Massachusetts — has made it easier for people to leave, Williams said.
