A new study claims as many as 9,000 California businesses likely moved or expanded outside of the state in the past seven years.

Companies moved elsewhere (particularly Texas) to capitalize on cost savings and improve their prospects for growth. The total number is based on 1,510 California companies that moved or expanded operations outside of the state from 2008 to 2014, citing expert opinion that for every one public move there are at least five that aren't public knowledge. Numbers in the report from Spectrum Location Solutions, a site-selection company based in Irvine, are based on public information about those 1,510 moves.

The study did not count when companies opened in a new location to take advantage of new markets, but rather focused on those moves made based on California's business environment. Toyota, for example, will relocate its North American headquarters from Torrance to a consolidated site in Plano, TX.

The report quotes statistics showing California had 170 large facilities open in 2014, putting it 12th in the nation. Texas had 689 large facilities open that year. After Texas, companies were likely to move to Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Washington and Oregon. Beyond those states, other top relocation sites were in the Southeast.

Los Angeles County had the most companies that moved or expanded elsewhere, followed by Orange, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Diego and Alameda counties.