Americans are flocking to Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina, while states like California and New York have seen their populations decline since the pandemic.
These generally conservative states have seen their population grow by 10% or more from 2010-2022, an analysis of U.S. Census data shows in a new report. Texas, Florida, and Tennessee, are also attracting younger families, with more children under five living in these states than a decade ago.
As more families settle down in these southeastern states, the report asked these parents what policies are most important to them.
“We wanted to figure out what’s politically popular when it comes to advancing their status as family-friendly places to live and work,” study author Brad Wilcox told Fox News Digital.
YOUNG AMERICANS PACKING THEIR BAGS: GEN Z HEADING TO TEXAS, FLEEING STATES LIKE CALIFORNIA FOR BETTER LIVING
The December joint report from the Institute for Family Studies and the Ethics and Public Policy Center analyzed new survey results from YouGov asking parents in these five states how they feel about different proposed pro-family policies. The results were further broken down by political affiliation.
“All 16 policy proposals we polled were either ‘strongly’ or ‘somewhat’ supported by a majority of parents with children under 18,” the report said.
Parents of all political stripes voiced support for a property tax credit for parents, for instance. Other policy proposals included universal school lunches, eliminating sales tax on diapers, state-funded paid parental leave, increasing child care vouchers for low-income families and $5,000 education savings accounts.
These findings reveal parents “across the board are open to policymakers’ ideas for material support that would make family life easier. The five policies that ranked highest among parents would all require some amount of public funds, either in direct expenditures or in forgone tax revenue,” the report stated.
“Parents are…
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