Do you know anybody who has never left their home state?

[bugo]

Do you know any adults who have never been outside their home state?  I imagine that if somebody were from Alaska, Hawaii and parts of Texas and California and Florida, they might have never visited another state. I have heard that some NYC residents have never left the city. That is crazy to me.

[Max Rockatansky]

Yes, a person who worked for me in Florida never had left the state in her entire life.  She was in her late 20s and had never been further north than Daytona.  My understanding was that money had always been a problem and travel was never something that could facilitated, even out of state. 

[I-39]

No one that I know personally. I can't imagine doing that, it's gotta be depressing.

[bugo]

Not everybody who hasn't visited Florida can appreciate how big it is. It's over 800 driving miles between Pensacola and Key West. If you are driving from the northeast to south Florida, don't think that you are almost there, because you have a long way to go.

[texaskdog]

I knew a girl in Minnesota who never had and Wisconsin was 20 minutes away but that was back when she was 16

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I knew a guy who didn't leave his state until he was 23, though he has never learned to drive.

[plain]

I know quite a few people who never left their home state. I thought it was pretty common to tell you the truth.

[Rothman]

I worked with a woman who grew up in NYC, but I don't believe she had ever left the state (we worked upstate).  She was two years away from retirement and as we were talking about road trips, she asked us how to go on one -- like how to find hotels and gas stations and the like.

I really don't think she even made it to NJ or any neighboring state.

[Brandon]

When Katrina hit, that was the first time a lot of people from the 9th Ward and similar areas had ever left New Orleans, much less Louisiana.

There are also Chicagoans who, believe it or not, have never even left Illinois.

[Flint1979]

I know some people that don't ever leave Saginaw County let alone the State of Michigan.

[Flint1979]

Not everybody who hasn't visited Florida can appreciate how big it is. It's over 800 driving miles between Pensacola and Key West. If you are driving from the northeast to south Florida, don't think that you are almost there, because you have a long way to go.

The 900 mile drive from Texline, Texas to Brownsville, Texas is a pretty long haul.

[jeffandnicole]

Growing up, at least half our class trips involved going to Philly from NJ which was less than 1/2 hour away, so that give you a sense of the likelihood of anyone in my general area not having left the state in their life.

Later here in life, reading comments on public news websites, it makes me wonder if some of those people have ever left NJ though!

[roadman65]

Maybe some in rural states in the west where you grow up in ruralness and have no reason to depend on other regions you find a lot of people who never leave.

[SectorZ]

Growing up 10 miles from the NH border, I didn't know anyone who never left Massachusetts. A friend of mine that grew up in Somerville and moved to my town at 13 years old never left the state until going into NH shortly after moving closer to it. He had never been to Maine, Vermont, or Quebec until age 18, and that was with me.

[jp the roadgeek]

Can't say I do, considering I've lived in CT and we had school field trips to NYC and Boston that would disqualify all my schoolmates.  I've been to FL with almost all members of my family, and many of my current friends live out of state and have traveled often.    The closest I could say would be my grandfather.  He did serve in WWII, but I don't think he left CT more than twice in the last 30 years of his life, and both times it was with me to go to NYC to the VA hospital. 

[bing101]

Do you know any adults who have never been outside their home state?  I imagine that if somebody were from Alaska, Hawaii and parts of Texas and California and Florida, they might have never visited another state. I have heard that some NYC residents have never left the city. That is crazy to me.

California in my case basically everybody I know of have lived in other states or lived in other countries but thats my sample though since I live Halfway from Sacramento and San Francisco. The recent attention of people leaving California for other states just seem to enforce that.

[webny99]

The short answer for me is No, although I did have some peers in high school that had never been on a plane which I found bizarre.


For NYC, my estimate would be as follows:

25% have never left the city
25% have been to Jersey, Connecticut, or both, but never been north of the 42nd parallel
25% go upstate every summer to the Catskills or Adirondacks
25% have lived and/or traveled outside the Northeast

[Max Rockatansky]

Do you know any adults who have never been outside their home state?  I imagine that if somebody were from Alaska, Hawaii and parts of Texas and California and Florida, they might have never visited another state. I have heard that some NYC residents have never left the city. That is crazy to me.

California in my case basically everybody I know of have lived in other states or lived in other countries but thats my sample though since I live Halfway from Sacramento and San Francisco. The recent attention of people leaving California for other states just seem to enforce that.

I had an employee that worked for me in Arizona who was a California native.  The first time he stepped out of California was when he was 28 and moved to Arizona. 

[Sctvhound]

In Charleston it is actually decently common, especially among the Black community. I know more than a few folks who never have gone outside of the Charleston area (James Island/John's Island/Downtown) well into their 20s. It all depends on money. A lot of folks don't have a car and going to areas more than a couple of miles away through the bus system is a trek.

I know folks who have never even been to some of the more suburban areas like Summerville from James Island.

It is probably the majority in some of the rural counties of South Carolina. There are rural counties like Williamsburg and Allendale where for a large chunk of the population, they might go to the major city once or twice in a year and that is it. Then I know of others who drive 50 miles+ just to shop in North Charleston and Charleston.

[1995hoo]

Since I live in the DC area, it would be exceptionally unusual to find someone who's never been across state lines, even just from DC to Maryland or Virginia (or vice versa). With that said, in the summer of 2019 I worked with a fellow who clearly didn't get out much–he was adamant, completely certain, that there is no speed limit anywhere in the USA higher than 55 mph. (Based on his mannerisms and other things he said, I concluded he actually believed that and wasn't just trying to troll us.) I therefore wouldn't be surprised to hear that he had never left DC, especially seeing as how there was a 65-mph speed limit immediately across the river in the I-395 express lanes beginning near the Pentagon (now a variable speed limit zone usually posted at 65).

[bing101]

Do you know any adults who have never been outside their home state?  I imagine that if somebody were from Alaska, Hawaii and parts of Texas and California and Florida, they might have never visited another state. I have heard that some NYC residents have never left the city. That is crazy to me.

California in my case basically everybody I know of have lived in other states or lived in other countries but thats my sample though since I live Halfway from Sacramento and San Francisco. The recent attention of people leaving California for other states just seem to enforce that.

I had an employee that worked for me in Arizona who was a California native.  The first time he stepped out of California was when he was 28 and moved to Arizona.

Yes I seen articles where Arizona and Nevada are named as states where ex-California residents go to for retirement reasons. But that is being covered up with articles CEO's and boards of Venture Capitalists companies and "Tech Companies" from the Bay Area moving their management offices to Texas for corporate tax reasons.

[Scott5114]

Since I live in the DC area, it would be exceptionally unusual to find someone who's never been across state lines, even just from DC to Maryland or Virginia (or vice versa). With that said, in the summer of 2019 I worked with a fellow who clearly didn't get out much–he was adamant, completely certain, that there is no speed limit anywhere in the USA higher than 55 mph. (Based on his mannerisms and other things he said, I concluded he actually believed that and wasn't just trying to troll us.) I therefore wouldn't be surprised to hear that he had never left DC, especially seeing as how there was a 65-mph speed limit immediately across the river in the I-395 express lanes beginning near the Pentagon (now a variable speed limit zone usually posted at 65).

I hope you showed him a photo of an 85 MPH sign from TX-130.

[kphoger]

There are also Chicagoans who, believe it or not, have never even left Illinois.

Perhaps even more surprising:  Back in the 1980s, my family people in Joliet who had never been to Chicago.

Maybe some in rural states in the west where you grow up in ruralness and have no reason to depend on other regions you find a lot of people who never leave.

Not to get back into the topic of what counts as the West and what counts as the Midwest...  But I grew up in rural northwestern Kansas, 29 miles from the nearest stoplight, and very few people had never left the state.  If anything, living in a rural area makes one even more dependent on other regions.

Want to buy a specific model of car?  There's a good chance you're going out of state.

Need to visit a specialist that's not available at your town's hospital?  There's a good chance you're going out of state.

Need to pick someone up at the airport?  There's a good chance you're going out of state.

Heck, my childhood orthodontist was in another state!  (Granted, I lived in a county that bordered that state.)

An exception might be Montana, where people living in the rural eastern part of the state might would find the within-Montana big cities to all be more convenient than the out-of-state ones.  That's just a guess on my part, though, as the only person I know in eastern Montana travels to and from the Twin Cities to visit family.

[webny99]

Not to get back into the topic of what counts as the West and what counts as the Midwest...  But I grew up in rural northwestern Kansas, 29 miles from the nearest stoplight, and very few people had never left the state.  If anything, living in a rural area makes one even more dependent on other regions.

Besides the obvious factor, which is proximity to a state line, I think it has to do with the culture and way of life in the area. Most people in the Midwest probably have been out of state: the Plains are boring, and getting groceries, or going to the airport, or going out for a day with the family requires driving to the nearest big city, which may or may not be in another state. Traveling is a part of the lifestyle there in a way that it isn't in parts of Appalachia and the Deep South.



(I just now noticed your signature. You were waiting for me to notice, weren't you?)

[kphoger]

Not to get back into the topic of what counts as the West and what counts as the Midwest...  But I grew up in rural northwestern Kansas, 29 miles from the nearest stoplight, and very few people had never left the state.  If anything, living in a rural area makes one even more dependent on other regions.

Besides the obvious factor, which is proximity to a state line, I think it has to do with the culture and way of life in the area. Most people in the Midwest probably have been out of state: the Plains are boring, and getting groceries, or going to the airport, or going out for a day with the family requires driving to the nearest big city, which may or may not be in another state. Traveling is a part of the lifestyle there in a way that it isn't in parts of Appalachia and the Deep South.

But I was replying to the assertion that the rural West is where one would be more likely to never leave the state.  I don't doubt for a second what you're saying, because it agrees with what I was saying:  that never leaving the state is actually less likely in the rural West than in, say, Appalachia or the deep South.

And also...  yes.