Illinois Projected to Lead Nation in Population Shrinkage to 2050

The state of Illinois has been losing people to other states for a decade now, and it doesn’t appear as if that trend is going to change any time soon. Per the latest projections from the University of Virginia, Illinois not only will continue to lose people, but lead the nation in population loss from 2025 to 2050.

The outward bound moving vans will apparently keep rolling

The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service crunched the numbers and has predicted that the United States will grow by 30 million people driving the overall population to 370 plus million. With that overall growth it’s amazing that any state wouldn’t see a bump in people, and yet the study showed 18 states losing persons.

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The biggest states now, California, Texas and Florida will continue to be the biggest, but the fastest growing states include Texas, Utah and Idaho. Percentage wise, Idaho is expected to grow by 30% by 2050. The Southeast and the West are the regions expected to grow the most.

Boxed up Illinois memories headed elsewhere

Illinois is expected to drop by 1.1 million people by 2050. That is an 8% drop in population and number 1 by volume in the country. The only states expected to lose more by percentage are West Virginia, which is expected to dip 15%. Mississippi is supposed to lose 9% of its current population, and Connecticut is also believed to be primed to drop 8% of it’s population. This only makes Illinois current financial situation that much more acute. With fewer people paying taxes, unfunded liabilities will fall on fewer taxpayers, making higher taxes more likely and bankruptcy increasingly possible.