Census Shows People Continue To Leave Connecticut

(AP) –– People moved out of Connecticut during the late 1990s at a faster rate than out of other New England states, new data from the US Census shows.

Data on migration –– showing movement patterns by state, city, and region –– showed that Connecticut had the ninth-highest rate of net migration loss in the nation between 1995 and 2000, the census said.

Florida was the top destination for Connecticut residents, especially for the retired. About 40 percent of Connecticut’s residents age 65 or older who left the state from 1995 to 2000 went to the Sunshine State.

Experts said both well-to-do snowbirds and the economically strapped are leaving Connecticut for Florida. Some go to retire in the sun, while others move to save money.

Overall, the state had a net loss of domestic migrants of 64,610 people.

Massachusetts was the only other New England where more people moved out than moved in between 1995 to 2000. The other four New England states gained population from migration.

Connecticut added jobs in the late 1990s, but the state may have not recovered enough to lure people back after the deep recession earlier in the decade, said Ronald F. Van Winkle, a West Hartford economist.

Corporations that cut their work forces through retirement incentives may have added to the migration out of state, he said. People who otherwise would have stayed in Connecticut to work five more years instead took the option to get out.

Hartford had by far the largest net migration out of any Connecticut city and town, losing nearly 15,000 people from 1995 to 2000, the census said.

Small towns gained, including East Hampton, Mansfield, home to the University of Connecticut, and Montville, home of the Mohegan Sun Casino, which opened in 1996.

Despite the migration deficit, Connecticut’s population grows because of births and foreign immigration. The 2000 census found the state had 3.4 million people, up from 3.2 million in the 1990 census.