Over the past two decades, people have been fleeing the nine-state Northeast region. But demographers report that the exodus may finally be over. As many people are arriving as those who are leaving for the first time since the 1970s.

• Since 1981, more than 11 million people have moved out of the Northeast -- which consists of the six New England states, plus New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

• Only 6.5 million moved in from other regions of the country.

• The losses peaked in 1991, when 585,000 more people left than arrived.

• The Northeast's population didn't actually decline during that time because births exceeded deaths and people immigrated from other countries, but it grew by only 1.5 million since 1981.

Census Bureau estimates for 1997 show that only 119,000 more people left than came in from other regions of the U.S. -- a loss so small as to be statistically insignificant. Massachusetts and Maine are leading the turnaround, but Pennsylvania and New York are continuing to lose residents.

Aging factories, high unemployment and the lure of the Sun Belt were responsible for the two-decade drain. Now, employment is high, more people are deciding to retire in picturesque New England towns and new industries are moving in.

Source: Haya El Nasser, "Prosperity Halts Exodus, Fuels Northeast Rebirth," USA Today, October 27, 1998.