A U-Haul moving van sits outside a Boston home. iStock photo
The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce warned Wednesday that a “distressing number” of young people are planning to leave the Greater Boston area, citing a new survey conducted for the business interest group.
The survey polled 600 people aged 20 to 30 years old living in Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth and Suffolk counties between Feb. 27 and March 20.
Among those surveyed, 26 percent said they are likely to leave Greater Boston in the next five years. The chamber noted that the figure is similar to 2023 survey results, which showed that a quarter of young residents planned to leave the area.
But about half of those who plan to leave the Greater Boston area expect to move elsewhere within Massachusetts, according to the survey report.
The chamber is one of several business groups recently warning about outmigration in Massachusetts, calling on elected officials to prioritize policies that would support businesses and young professionals as well as persuade them to stay in the state, which faces major affordability issues and a housing crisis.
Of the respondents planning to leave Massachusetts, almost half are looking to move to the southeast and southwest, while 15 percent are looking to move to a state in the Northeast, 11 percent to another state in New England and 17 percent to a state outside both of those regions.
A controversial ballot proposal, backed by several business groups and opposed by top State House Democrats, would drop the state’s income tax from 5 percent to 4 percent over three years – a change supporters say will help bring people into Massachusetts and convince others not to leave, but that opponents say will slash the state’s revenue and force cuts across programs.
People surveyed noted job availability, cost of rent, safety and the ability to buy a home as some of the most important factors when deciding how long to stay in Greater Boston. Respondents pointed to affordable housing, health care accessibility and availability of quality jobs as issues they believe local leaders should prioritize.
The chamber noted a “concerning decline” in day-to-day life satisfaction among those surveyed – which hit 79 percent in 2026, down 10 percent from 2023’s 89 percent reading – but an increase in how easily young people feel they can build community. Survey results suggested that young residents are interested in on-the-job training and advancement opportunities for their careers and professional development.
The survey was conducted by Washington, D.C.-based public opinion research firm HIT Strategies on behalf of the chamber. Its margin of error is around 4.12 percent.
