Illinois is drowning under a mountain of debt, unpaid bills and underfunded pension liabilities and it's largest city, Chicago, is suffering from a staggering outbreak of violent crime not seen since gang wars engulfed major cities from LA to New York in the mid-90's. Here is just a small taste of some of our posts on Illinois' challenges:

Given that, it's hardly surprising that the Prairie State lost a net 33,700 residents in fiscal year 2017, according to the Census Bureau. Also not surprising is the fact that the mass exodus from Illinois was the largest of any state in the country with lower taxed, lower cost of living states like Texas and Florida posting the biggest gains.

Of course, the net population loss masks the true gross outflow of Illinois residents as it doesn't account for natural births/deaths. Assuming that Illinois has the same natural population growth as the U.S. as a whole (0.7%) implies that the state lost a staggering ~125,000 residents in aggregate, or roughly 1 man/woman/child every 4.3 minutes.

Meanwhile, adding insult to injury, the domestic migration out of Illinois was enough to push the state down one notch on the state population ranking tables to just below Pennsylvania. Per Illinois Policy:

Of course, this is all terrible news for Illinois retirees whose pension obligations continue to grow every year and currently stand at nearly $130 billion...

While we could be wrong, the last we checked folks were no longer on the hook to pay Illinois taxes after making the decision to move to another state. Meanwhile, efforts to offset the lost tax revenue will only result in an acceleration of population declines in the future...

Conclusion: Sorry, Illinois, but your ponzi scheme is slowly coming unraveled.