College students are consistently opting to leave New England after graduation, according to the latest policy brief from the New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

The study’s author, senior economist Alicia Sasser Modestino, examined college graduate retention rates across the country and found that New England has consistently ranked lowest on the list since the data began being collected in 1993.

Massachusetts had the highest retention rate of 2008 college graduates in New England at 52 percent, giving it the 38th highest retention rate in the country.

Vermont had the lowest retention rate in the region, with only 20 percent of graduates still living in the Green Mountain State one year after graduation, the second lowest in the country.

Only the District of Columbia had a lower retention rate at 10.4 percent. No data was available for Alaska, North Dakota and Wyoming.

In comparison, states such as New York and California retained over three-quarters of their 2008 recent college graduates. These states ranked at No. 10 and No. 1, respectively, in the national retention rankings for 2008.  

"Between 1990 and 2010, the number of individuals aged 22 to 27 years with a bachelor’s degree or higher in New England grew by only 12.1 percent – less than one-third the national increase," Modestino said in a statement. "As a result, policymakers and business leaders are concerned that an inadequate supply of skilled workers may hamper the region’s economic growth."

New England colleges attract a higher percentage of students from other regions than anywhere else in the country. Non-native students have a propensity to move back home after graduation, whether to take a job or be closer to family, Modestino says. Additionally, students who graduate from private institutions – of which New England has many – are more likely to leave the region where they studied than public school graduates.