Young People Want to Leave Vermont Over Affordability Concerns, Poll Finds

More than 40 percent of Vermonters are considering leaving the state, with some 60 percent of residents between the ages of 18 and 34 saying they will “likely” move away within the next five years, according to a recently released poll from the University of New Hampshire.

Six in 10 of those who will probably leave said they want to move somewhere with cheaper housing and a lower cost of living. About 50 percent said they were seeking lower taxes. Overall, the online poll, which surveyed 981 Vermonters from across the state and from a variety of political and educational backgrounds, found that 86 percent of Vermonters find the state at least somewhat unaffordable.

Vermont’s results stand out compared to the other New England states UNH polled. In neighboring New Hampshire, only 21 percent of residents between the ages of 18 and 34 said they wanted to move away within the next five years.

The findings capture the scale of Vermont’s cost-of-living woes and the challenge they pose to an aging state that wants to attract younger residents.

Since February, Seven Days has documented these demographic shifts in a series titled “Gen Zero.”

In April, young Vermonters told Seven Days that for years, the rising costs of housing, health care and childcare have left them locked out of traditional milestones such as buying a house and starting a family.

In 2025, the Vermont Housing Finance Agency said the state needs to build an additional 36,000 homes to address the state’s housing shortage. According to data from the VHFA, the median price of a house in Vermont rose by an average of about 9 percent per year since 2020.

While Vermont has prioritized investments that have made childcare more affordable and accessible, wait lists remain common. And Vermont families still pay more than $1,000 a month for childcare, according to data released early last year by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

Vermont’s birth rate has lagged behind the national average for years. The state’s fertility rate is 41.5 per 1,000 women of childbearing age, well below the national average of 53. That’s led to a sharp decline in enrollment at Vermont public schools, from 98,000 in 2005 to 73,000 in 2025. The drop-off has made the per-pupil cost of educating Vermont’s children, and property taxes, more expensive, Seven Days reported in February.

The UNH poll found that for many of those young people who plan on leaving, Southern states and other New England states, especially New Hampshire and Maine, are likely destinations.