Half of residents in California’s third-most populated county say they are considering moving, a survey published Aug. 9 revealed.

The survey—conducted by the University of California–Irvine, School of Social Ecology—questioned 1,100 current and former residents, and found that 51 percent of current residents said they hoped to move out of the county. More than one-third of them were actively considering a move.

“These numbers are most concentrated among residents under 40, women, non-white residents, and those without a college education,” according to the survey.

Most of the “potential leavers” cited the high cost of housing and living, taxes, and other factors such as crime and traffic as important reasons to leave.

Jon Gould, dean of the School of Social Ecology, said the poll shows the challenges facing the community.

“This poll provides a fuller accounting of the risks facing Orange County and the factors that motivate staying and leaving,” Gould said during the second annual State of the County luncheon in Newport Beach on Friday.

Despite the prevalence of the sentiment to leave the county, it has lost only about 1 percent of its population of nearly 3.2 million in the last four years, according to the survey.

“Unlike much of the rest of California, Orange County has not been hemorrhaging residents,” Gould said.

However, the number of residents who are actively considering leaving shows a “strong storm brewing off our coast,” he said.

Gould used the opportunity to call on elected officials, business leaders, and community members to take action by building more affordable housing across the county.

The poll was created to address the county’s pressing problems, such as the lack of affordable housing, Gould said.

“We don’t just want to study social problems,” he said. “We want to solve them.”

Orange County Supervisors Katrina Foley and Don Wagner told the university they shared their ideas for increasing affordable housing, according to a university press release.

‘We need to build more,” Wagner said, according to the university. He encouraged the streamlining of regulations for affordable housing developments.

Foley apparently agreed, saying the county was looking to introduce a program that would give 2 percent loans for affordable housing construction as a way to fix the problem.

“We don’t want to lose the middle class or the young professional,” Foley told the university.

The survey of former and current Orange County residents was conducted between March 20 and March 27. Participants were taken from an Orange County voter file and weighted against Census Bureau data for gender, age, race, ethnicity, and educational background.

The survey was conducted in collaboration with Ken Goldstein, a political professor at the University of San Francisco, and a team at the American Association of Universities.

The publication was sponsored by the Haynes Foundation, a private foundation in Los Angeles focused on reforming communities to alleviate poverty.