The 1990's exodus to other states from California and from the Northeast appears to have eased since 2000, but not in metropolitan New York, a Census Bureau analysis says.
The South remains a magnet for migrants, but the influx of new residents has declined steeply outside the South Atlantic region.
The analysis, which is being released today, looked only at people moving from one place to another in the United States and did not take into account people arriving from other countries.
Maine, Rhode Island, Maryland and Wyoming, which lost population to other states in the 1990's, have gained residents from elsewhere in the country since 2000.
William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution in Washington, attributed much of the pattern to soaring housing costs.
From 2000 to 2004, the annual average net loss declined to 99,000 as more Californians moved inland from cities on the coast instead of moving to other states.
Recent census estimates suggest that immigration --- the engine driving New York City's population growth --- appears to have slowed slightly, contributing to a small decline in the city's population in the year ended July 1, 2005.
In New York City, the counties that make up the five boroughs, except for Staten Island, were also among the top 25 counties with large annual population losses.
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