Massachusetts has a history of attracting young people to its higher education institutions but faces challenges retaining them as they grow older. Over the past decade, net domestic outmigration for residents ages 25- 54 have resulted in annual losses of 20,000 – 30,000 people. This significantly reduces the labor supply in Massachusetts, especially when thousands of Baby Boomers are retiring each month. If this trend persists, the workforce is expected to decline over the next decade, hampering economic growth. While high housing costs are a major factor, it is not the only one. Expanding housing options could help Massachusetts retain more of those young adults. This section examines the characteristics of people who moved out of Massachusetts recently and what kinds of households they formed.
In 2022, approximately 200,000 people moved out of Massachusetts. While the Commonwealth’s many higher education opportunities attract young adults (18-24), Massachusetts is losing more residents than it attracts. In particular, young adults are choosing to make homes elsewhere. Massachusetts lost 13,700 residents aged 25 to 34 in 2022 and in total nearly 24,000 prime working age adults.
After leaving Massachusetts, these outmigrants established 85,000 households consisting of mostly single-person (over half) or two-person households (over a quarter). Eighty-five percent of these households had no children under 18, and over half were single and never married. Most individuals who moved out of Massachusetts were well educated, and over a third had a graduate degree.
The ability to work from home appears to have contributed to the increase in outmigration from Massachusetts as the occupation and industry composition in Massachusetts allows workers to embrace work from home opportunities more readily than other states.1 The pandemic and the widespread adoption of work from home policies may have contributed to the short-term increase in domestic outmigration of remote workers, as Massachusetts returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2024, with a net loss of 27,500 residents. Policies designed to attract young adults and families to the Bay State will be vital in ensuring that Massachusetts continues to attract highly educated workers who are now less tethered to specific locations.