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I am anchor
About 60 percent of Arizonans weren’t born in the state
Posted
By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX — So if it seems like everyone here is from somewhere else, you’re partly right.
About 60% right.
New figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that fewer than 40% of state residents actually were born here.
And a separate report finds that nearly 3.9% of those who were living in Arizona last year actually were living somewhere else a year before that.
So where are all those Arizonans coming from?
Many of those were born to the west. In fact, California-natives make up about 9.7% of the state population.
In second place — but far behind — are all those Cubs fan who decided to migrate. The Census Bureau finds 3.6% of Arizona residents came from Illinois.
Those born in other cold, upper Midwest states also have found their way to warmer climes here, with nearly 2.1% of people living in Arizona having been born in Michigan and 1.3% from Minnesota.
The Lone Star state has contributed slightly more than 2% of its natives to Arizona.
Buckeye State natives from Ohio make up 1.9% of the state.
And it’s not true that New Yorkers all end up in Florida.
More than 200,000 of those born in the Empire State now call Arizona their home, enough to make up 2.9% of this state’s population. Still, that’s far less than the 7.6% of Florida’s population made up of native New Yorkers.
But the largest group of non-native Arizonans actually weren’t born in this country at all. More than a million of the state’s residents have foreign countries on their birth certificates, about 15% of state residents.
As to that report on year-to-year migration, the Census Bureau finds California added an estimated 68,516 residents over a one-year period. Another 13,247 left Illinois.
To be fair, this isn’t a one-way street.
The new report shows plenty of those born in Arizona who are now living somewhere else. And in some cases, Arizona has donated more souls to their populations than the other way around.
Mot notable is Nevada. There are more than 36,000 Arizonans now living in the Silver State, versus about 29,000 of their native born now here.
Other states which have seen more native Arizonans leave than arrive from there include Georgia and North Carolina.
