Where Everybody in Albany, NY is Moving From

Albany is perhaps best known as the capital of New York State, but the city would like you to know it’s also got a lot to offer foodies.

In fact, Albany residents can compete with each other to see who makes the best Irish soda bread, celebrate the local maple syrup harvest and even join a pub crawl that combines libations with the city’s literary history. And, the Capital Craft Beverage Trail puts you directly in touch with local makers of beer, wine, cider and spirits.

All that delicious fun is probably one reason people are moving to Albany. The metro-area population went from 882,801 to 886,188 between July 2016 and July 2017, a .4 percent increase, according to the latest census data. During that time, the population of Albany County went from 309,080 to 309,612. (The metro area includes Albany, Schenectady, Troy, Saratoga Springs and other places, so it has a larger population than Albany County does.)

That’s not a huge amount of recent growth, but if we take a longer term view, we find that 19,667 people moved to Albany County from other places between 2011 and 2015, according to another census study.

That same study also answers the key question of where those people are moving from. Most, it turns out, are coming from other parts of New York—that’s where three quarters (14,692) of those new Albany County residents originated. The other quarter (4,975) moved in from other parts of the U.S., many from Massachusetts.

Below are rankings for the top five counties of origin for movers to Albany County:

Movers outside of New York:

1. Middlesex County, MA (Cambridge): 238 movers
2. Worcester County, MA: 195 movers
3. Essex County, NJ (Newark): 179 movers
4. Pinellas County, FL (St. Petersburg): 144 movers
5. Washington, DC: 132 movers

Movers from New York:

1. Rensselaer County:  2,794 movers
2. Saratoga County: 1,521 movers
3. Schenectady County: 1,377 movers
4. Nassau County: 759 movers
5. Suffolk County: 586 movers

Sources:

Albany County Convention & Visitors Bureau, and https://www.albany.org/restaurants/craft-beverage-trail/

Capital Beverage Trail, http://www.capitalcraftbeveragetrail.com/

U.S. Census Bureau