We got it wrong: More people moved out of New York and California than Florida in 2021

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct an error regarding Census data. In 2021, an estimated 469,577 people moved out of Florida, while 674,740 people relocated to the state. An earlier version of the story switched those numbers.

[Well, okay, mistakes happen. But it’s not as though this was some esoteric data story either. The migration to Florida, Texas, and other red states has been widely covered in other media. How did this story get past Insider’s editors, or even a basic fact check? Everyone else who looked at the data spotted the error immediately. Other Census Bureau reporting on net migration clearly showed Florida and Texas in the top echelon of destination states, and also showed California and New York as net losers. This is what happens when reporters and editors live in bubbles and don’t understand data on which they base their assumptions. They didn’t get it wrong so much as they just wanted it to be reality. — Ed]