The pace of California companies moving their headquarters out of state is quickening, according to a new report published by the Hoover Institute.

“The departures are accelerating as more relocation plans move to implementation,” according to the report by site selection consultant Joseph Vranich, president of Spectrum Location Solutions, and Lee Ohanian, a UCLA economics professor and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

The paper provides the most detailed and comprehensive data on relocations of California business headquarters between 2018 and 2021. It documents that these headquarter exits have more than doubled in 2021.

In the first half of 2021, 74 companies moved their headquarters out of California, for a monthly average of 12.3. In all of 2020, 62 companies took their headquarters out of the Golden State for a monthly average of 5.2, while 78, or a monthly average of 6.5, did so in 2019. In 2018, 58 companies moved their headquarters out of California, or a monthly average of 4.8, according to the report titled, “Why company headquarters are leaving California in unprecedented numbers.“

That means California lost a total of 272 headquarters between Jan. 1, 2018, and June 30, 2021, the report found. The figures may understate the actual departures since small businesses leaving the state often go unnoticed.

The report’s authors cite familiar reasons for the headquarters leaving California: taxes, regulations and high costs tied to labor, litigation, energy and utility costs. Other factors coming into play are so-called quality of life issues such as housing affordability and homelessness.

“With 395,000 pages of regulations, California is the most highly regulated state in the country. The challenges that businesses have in complying with these regulations are compounded when we consider that they must also deal with many state agencies, boards, and commissions and the state has 518 such entities.”

Page 22 of the 45 page report commences the review of employer costs for worker’s compensation benefits. “Businesses have long been concerned with California’s inordinately high workers’ compensation costs.” Table 12 shows California to be the third highest out of a 50 state analysis of 2020 workers’ compensation costs.

Anecdotal evidence also suggests the pace of departures is accelerating according to a review of this report by Bizjournal.

Last week, Brex said it has joined Coinbase in giving up its San Francisco headquarters. The two companies have embraced a no-headquarters model.

This week so far, HomeLight CEO Drew Uher said the proptech company had moved its San Francisco headquarters to Scottsdale, Arizona. On Aug. 24, Flexible Funding said it moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Fort Worth, Texas, where much of the company’s future hiring will occur.

“Our strategic move will foster an environment for team innovation, accommodate future business expansions, as well as attract and retain experienced talent,” Amelia Dipprey, chief revenue officer at the factoring and asset-based lender, said in unveiling the headquarters relocation. The company said it will maintain its San Francisco office, but the executive team will be based in Texas.