Unfortunately, the Baked Bean State's gain is its northern neighbors' loss

High-tax Massachusetts has lost 200K residents to other states over the past 5 years

Massachusetts, long a bastion of progressive politics and high taxes, has quietly watched the equivalent of one-and-a-half Cambridges pack up and leave. 

A new analysis from the Pioneer Institute finds that more than 182,000 net domestic residents exited the commonwealth between April 2020 and July 2025, a sustained outflow that researchers describe as a lasting structural shift rather than a brief pandemic aftershock.

The report, “The Massachusetts’ Labor Force: Now and Beyond,” paints a picture of a state grappling with affordability pressures, demographic decline and slowing economic momentum. 

Those leaving skew younger, particularly adults between 26 and 34, draining the state’s future workforce and tax base.

The young professional class has simply moved across the border into southern Maine and New Hampshire, where they’ve set about busily recreating the social and government structures they claim to be fleeing. Stay put, Massholes.