A Massachusetts think tank said residents of the Bay State are fleeing, while migrants, many of them illegal aliens, are coming to the state in droves.

The Pioneer Institute warned state officials not to look at the 2024 Census Bureau estimates of Massachusetts’ largest population growth in half a century; much of the state population growth came from an “influx of humanitarian migrants.”

The Institute reported that the state grew by 69,000 residents between 2023 and 2024; however, an “astounding” 90,217 international migrants helped offset a “loss” of 27,480 domestic residents.

“State leaders should not read too deeply into trendlines drawn from estimates, which are in turn based on changed definitions of Census data,” Pioneer Institute Executive Director Jim Stergios said in a statement.

“For years, Massachusetts was recognized nationwide as a magnet for capital and talent. Now we are not, so we need our leaders focused on addressing the reasons why wealth and talent are heading for the exits,” he added.

“In terms of economic impact, humanitarian migrants can’t make up for the domestic out-migration of residents who tend to be younger and more affluent,” Aidan Enright, author of the Pioneer report, said.

The Boston Herald reported:

Business coalition Mass Opportunity Alliance, which Pioneer is part of, provided results to a survey of 498 former Massachusetts residents who now live in Florida or New Hampshire on what caused them to relocate.

Tax policy proved to be the most-cited factor causing out-migration while “a vast majority of respondents” said their current quality of life is better than in the Bay State. Two-thirds of those who moved said Massachusetts became too costly with housing, taxes, groceries and other expenses.

“A short-term surge in low-skilled migrants,” Enright wrote, “many lacking legal status or the ability to work in regulated sectors, is no reason for policymakers to think they have solved the out-migration crisis, which has always been about losing wealth to invest here and the talent that makes economic success possible.”

Breitbart News’s Neil Munro reported in 2024 that the massive increase in Electronic Benefit Cards (EBT) has revealed the startling inflow of low-income migrants, which also explains the increasing number of middle-class residents leaving the Bay State.

Leftists have celebrated the massive inflow of migrants and have helped migrants access the federal and state benefit doles.

“The number of illegal and inadmissible migrants living in Massachusetts is about 355,000, with about 50,000 new arrivals since 2021,” according to a July 2024 report by the Center for Immigration Studies.

Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.