(NEXSTAR)—There’s a certain pride that comes with being born in Texas. Texas is a culture, a way of life that people worldwide have grown to love. So if you’re born there, why would you ever want to leave?
New data shows that most Texans typically don’t.
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2023, there are roughly 334 million people who currently live in the United States. About 21 million of those people were born in the Lone Star State. That’s the second-highest in the country, trailing only California (about 30 million).
Of the roughly 21 million people who are born Texans, a little over 17 million of them still to this day live in Texas — about 82%.
Those 82% make up over half of Texas’ roughly 30 million resident population. The rest of Texas is made up of people from all over the world including about 1 million from California, over 500,000 from Louisiana, roughly 400,000 from Illinois, and over 5 million from foreign countries, Census estimates show.
As for the other roughly 18% of Texans who did not stay in their home state, the majority moved to California (436,000), Oklahoma (278,000), Florida (260,000) and Colorado (211,000).