Once Florida was called the sixth boro of New York, but now it could become the largest boro of ex-pats given the rising taxes and crime in the Big Apple.
According to a new report more New Yorkers fled to Florida in 2022 than any year in history.
A staggering 64,577 Empire staters exchanged their driver’s licenses for the Sunshine State version last year, according to figures from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
“They come in every day,” a staffer at a Jacksonville DMV office said this week with a weary laugh. “I hear all the complaints. I feel like a therapist sometimes.”
Last year’s record-shattering number comfortably eclipsed the prior mark of 61,728 New Yorkers who made the Florida switch in 2021, according to motor vehicle data.
The 2022 exodus marks a 39% increase in outbound migration to Florida from New York compared to the last pre-pandemic year of 2019 — and a resounding 46% surge compared to just five years ago in 2017.
A total of 15,595 New Yorkers transitioned to Florida in the final quarter of 2022, including more than 5,000 last month alone.
So the escape from New York continues with little slowing in sight due to the extraordinary jobs Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams are doing.
Have pity on those of us left stranded here due to circumstances beyond our control.