1 in 3 voters say they’ve considered leaving Massachusetts — even if they want to stay. ‘Just outrageously expensive.’

Natalie Ryan is considering taking a step that would save her money while making a small but telling statement on living in Massachusetts: moving out of state.

Ryan moved to Mashpee from Connecticut three years ago for her husband’s job. Now, as they near retirement age, Ryan said they’re considering relocating to North Carolina, where they have family and housing is far more affordable.

“I was looking for a four-bedroom house [on Cape Cod] and ended up with a two-bedroom condo,” Ryan, 63, said. The Cape “is a beautiful place to live, but the cost of living is just outrageously expensive.”

She is among a slew of voters in a Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll who said the state’s high cost of living may have finally pushed them out. One-third of the 500 surveyed said they have considered leaving Massachusetts over the last year — a stark number, considering more than half of voters polled also said the state is moving in the right direction.

Still, the struggles to afford living here take many forms, residents say. Nearly 37 percent of those polled say inflation and the cost of living is their greatest economic concern. One-quarter of voters in the poll listed health care costs as their top worry, with housing affordability (at 17 percent) and taxes (10 percent) also ranking high.

Meanwhile, 75 percent of voters polled in November said they expect their financial situations to stay the same or worsen over the next year.

For some 20 percent of those polled, the single biggest strain on their budgets is their utility bills, as, for example, Massachusetts has the third-highest electricity rates in the nation, after California and Hawaii.

One of those is William Webber of Holbrook, who said that while he keeps his bedroom at a cozy 72 degrees in the winter, the rest of his house is closer to 60. He unplugs electronics from outlets when he’s not using them, and has participated in the state’s Mass Save program twice to lower costs — once to install a heat pump and another to replace his oil furnace with natural gas. Even still, his bills are still “crazy” high.

At 79 and retired, Webber said he isn’t considering moving out of state, but understands why others would.

“All my life, prices go up,” said Webber, who worked as a computer programmer for the state’s Department of Transitional Assistance. “But it seems excessive in the last few years.”

Ralph DiChiara, 69, is a lifelong New Englander who said he wants to stay here and spends “a lot of time” posing a question to his wife: “Where can we go?”

“Why do you think we call it ‘Taxachusetts’?” he said jokingly. “It’s costing me a fortune to live.”

DiChiara, a hospice administrator who lives in Oakham, said his property taxes went up after moving from nearby Spencer. He said his adult son, who is a renter, is less likely than ever to afford his own home in the state.

“There was a time when I could have one job and be able to afford my apartment and my car and everything else,” said DiChiara, who was born and raised in Boston. “Now, it’s impossible.”

Some who have considered moving out of state said the motivation isn’t any one single thing, but rather a sense the trade-off for that high cost of living isn’t worth it, despite Massachusetts boasting some of the country’s best hospitals, top-flight school systems, and most desirable ZIP codes.

Chris Lane, who lives in Methuen, said he saw his tax dollars hard at work when he worked in a local school district. However, he said the state’s infrastructure doesn’t seem to reflect the price tag.

“I’m not a tax complainer, but the roads look like hell. If the wind blows, we lose power,” he said. “For such an advanced state, it feels like we have no perks.”

Lane, 49, said he has entertained job offers in Vermont and considered moving to Maine. If he did, he’d be close to urban destinations such as Burlington or Portland, but with more room and less traffic, he said.

“To be honest, the only thing keeping us here is I bought my grandmother’s house and it means the world to my mother,” he said.

Residents fleeing the state, be it for Florida, New Hampshire, or elsewhere, has been a growing focus of state policymakers. Governor Maura Healey has made efforts to attract and keep people and businesses here a calling card, and many voters may judge her efforts in the gubernatorial campaign next year. Even small improvements in the numbers of people leaving Massachusetts have been cheered by her top lieutenants.

Yet, many are still leaving. According to the most recent IRS data available, about 200,000 people moved out of Massachusetts in 2022. Taking out young adults ages 18 to 24, many of whom likely came here for college, Massachusetts lost more residents than it attracted that year, with nearly 24,000 people in their prime working years of between 25 to 54 years old leaving.

The Suffolk/Globe poll found that the largest tranches of residents who’ve considered moving, according to the Suffolk/Globe poll, are at different ends of the age spectrum: those ages 18 to 24 years old, and separately, between 50 and 64. More than half are also registered Republicans or consider themselves conservative, indicating the state’s reputation as a Democratic stronghold may be at play for some.

Regardless of personal reasons, such departures nonetheless take their toll. An analysis by Boston University last year showed such outmigration cost the state $4.3 billion in adjusted gross income and $213.7 million in lost tax revenue in 2021.

State data show the overall population in Massachusetts has actually increased by almost 1 percent from 2023 to 2024. That’s likely thanks to large numbers of immigrants coming to Massachusetts and fewer opting to leave following the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, analysts say.

DiChiara, of Oakham, said he believes those like him who consider leaving don’t make that choice easily.

“I don’t want to go down to the Carolinas or Florida. I’m a New Englander, and I want to stay here,” he said. “It’s not just one thing that would force me to want to leave.

Samantha Gross can be reached at samantha.gross@globe.com. Follow her @samanthajgross.