The youth are fleeing Long Island en masse: The population of young adults aged 25 to 34 in Long Island has dropped 15 percent in the past decade, according to a report just out from the United States Census Bureau.
At the same time, Long Island is getting older. The average age of a Nassau County resident has climbed from 38 to 40.
“There is definitely an older crowd in Long Island,” Danielle Decker, a 22-year-old Oyster Bay resident told Metro. “It’s the suburbs, so you see a lot of families with kids. This is a place I’d like to live when I’m older, not now.”
“When I go outt’s mainly guys in their 30s and 40s and you don’t know who is married; not everyone wears a wedding ring,” she continued. “It’s a skeevy scene. For a social life, I have to go into the city.”
High taxes, skyrocketing fuel costs, a lack of affordable housing and a tight job market are causing young adults to flee Long Island in droves.
According to the Long Island Index, 67 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds are very likely to migrate in the next five years.
“As soon as people graduate from college, they usually move out of their parents’ house and get off the island — so there’s only parents left,” said Alex Barbuto, a 26-year-old freelance photographer from Seacrest. “Long Island is expensive, and there’s not much growth opportunity for jobs. People my age here would be better off in the city, and they know it.”
