AUGUSTA – For years, more people have left Maine than have moved here. But that pattern has been reversed, U.S. Census Bureau figures show.

A migration report issued this month says that between 2000 and 2004, the average number of people moving into Maine each year exceeded the number of those leaving. That reverses a trend during the 1990s.

Gov. John Baldacci said that the figures show Maine is an attractive place to live and work, and that they bode well for the future.

“It shows that we’re moving in the right direction,” Baldacci said.

Maine is one of only four states to turn an annual loss of residents during the 1990s into an annual gain in more recent years, according to the Census Bureau. The other states are Rhode Island, Maryland and Wyoming.

The report also says the annual rate of migration into Maine from 2000 to 2004 exceeded that of all other New England states, including fast-growing New Hampshire.

From 2000 to 2004, Maine gained on average 6.3 net new residents per year for every 1,000 established residents, an average of 8,159 new Maine residents per year. New Hampshire gained 6.1 net new residents per 1,000, and Vermont gained 1.5, the report says.

Population patterns in York County account in large part for Maine’s net increase, said Michael Montagna, an economist for the State Planning Office.

Maine’s southernmost county had 12,700 of the 36,800 net residents settling in the state – about one-third – between 2000 and 2004.

Next was Cumberland County, with 4,400 new residents, followed by Kennebec County, with 3,300. The reasons for the net in-migration statewide aren’t entirely clear.

“Economics is a significant driver of it, but we’d have to do some research to see how much of it is quality of life and how much of it is things like the availability of housing,” Montagna said.

The Census report says most of the states that experienced net in-migration in the 1990s as well as the first part of this decade are in the South and West.