Who’s Moving Where: The State-to-State Edition

A state-by-state look at where people are moving.

By Matt Carmichael on November 19, 2015

Net migration is a helpful stat. Which states are gaining and losing population based on more people moving in than moving out. It will show that, for instance, Illinois has lost more than 800,000 residents than it has gained since 1995. That, my friends, is bad news for the Land of Lincoln. Politically, everyone can blame this on everyone else and both sides are probably right to a certain extent because these kinds of situations are complicated.

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Meanwhile, Texas, Florida and a handful of other states continue to hoover up residents from states near and far.

So who’s moving where? For this installment, I looked at the latest state-to-state migration data from the U.S. Census Bureau. However I didn’t look at the net migration, I just looked at out-migration. For each state, I determined which state it was losing the most residents to. Again, we’re talking just out-migration so while Arizona might have lost 35,000 residents to California it also gained 57,000 from the sunshine state. But again, just looking at where people go when they leave we find some interesting trends.

Texas, California and Florida are the big winners. Ten states lose the most residents to Texas and six states each lose to California and Florida.

Where they’re coming from, however, shows some very different patterns. Texas is sucking in residents from neighboring states, likely do to perceived better economic conditions in the rapidly-growing state. California is also drawing from its neighbors, and perhaps for the same reasons as California’s economy has turned around coming out of the recession. Florida, on the other hand is likely drawing in retirees from the aging upper East coast, but also from neighboring Georgia.

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That leaves the rest of the nation. Turns out, even when people leave a state they don’t tend to go very far. Illinois and Indiana swapped residents – although Indiana gained more than it lost by almost a 2:1 margin. Connecticut residents went to New York, Kansas to Missouri and people flipped back and forth between the Carolinas. Even in migration, the grass is always greener on the other side of the border.

Here’s the full results (again, this is just out-migration, not net)

People left:	and went to:	How many?
Alabama	Texas	8,487
Alaska	California	35,200
Arizona	Texas	11,926
Arkansas	Texas	11,926
California	Texas	63,591
Colorado	Texas	18,277
Connecticut	New York	14,649
Delaware	Pennsylvania	5,611
Washington, D.C.	Maryland	17,421
Florida	Georgia	45,495
Georgia	Florida	42,020
Hawaii	California	12,753
Idaho	Washington	12,825
Illinois	Indiana	38,177
Indiana	Illinois	19,221
Iowa	Nebraska	7,598
Kansas	Missouri	18,850
Kentucky	Ohio	18,410
Louisiana	Texas	23,805
Maine	Florida	4,293
Maryland	Virginia	28,071
Massachusetts	New York	15,222
Michigan	Ohio	13,480
Minnesota	Wisconsin	20,758
Mississippi	Texas	12,308
Missouri	Kansas	22,240
Montana	Washington	4,294
Nebraska	Iowa	8,602
Nevada	California	29,985
New Hampshire	Massachusetts	11,177
New Jersey	Pennsylvania	39,423
New Mexico	Texas	17,262
New York	Florida	58,753
North Carolina	South Carolina	31,188
North Dakota	Minnesota	8,587
Ohio	Florida	27,438
Oklahoma	Texas	25,096
Oregon	Washington	26,582
Pennsylvania	Florida	28,841
Rhode Island	Massachusetts	9,501
South Carolina	North Carolina	26,379
South Dakota	Minnesota	4,339
Tennessee	Texas	15,159
Texas	California	38,990
Utah	California	14,273
Vermont	Florida	2,319
Virginia	North Carolina	28,250
Washington	California	32,837
West Virginia	Virginia	8,620
Wisconsin	Minnesota	20,375
Wyoming	Colorado	5,426

 

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.