California Losing High- and Middle-Class Income Households: Study

Traffic comes to a standstill on the northbound and the southbound lanes of the Interstate 405 freeway near Los Angeles International Airport on Nov. 23, 2011. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

As the so-called exodus from California continues, the state is now losing both higher-income and middle-income households, according to a study published in March by the nonpartisan research group Public Policy Institute of California.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a decline in higher-earning families relocating to California, the report found. According to the study, there was a significant rise in the number of wealthy households leaving the state to nearly 220,000 by 2021 from about 150,000 in 2019.