Top 5 States People Moved To In 2020
Last year marked an interesting year in terms of population migration and relocation in the US. The pandemic added an interesting element to relocation trends, as remote work freed up many to move away from their company’s location. Health, cost of living, and quality of life became a higher priority for many as a result of COVID, and it spurred many to reconsider where they call home.
Still despite all of this, US Census data suggests that the overall trend of decreasing migration continued in 2020. The United Van Lines 2020 National Migration Study was recently released, which is a study of the total inbound and outbound moves they performed last year by State. Here we’ll break down their data and present 3 different Top 5 Lists created from different metrics.
Top 5 States With The Most Inbound Moves
This list will show which States saw the largest overall number of inbound moves. This list does not take into account the number of people moving out of each State, only the number of people moving in. Even so, it does show us which states are seeing the highest number of new residents.
- Florida: 7,335 Inbound Moves
- Texas: 7,098 Inbound Moves
- California: 6,888 Inbound Moves
- Washington: 4,162 Inbound Moves
- North Carolina: 4,039 Inbound Moves
Florida topping the list is no surprise considering all of the news and reports of migration to Florida, and you can say the same for Texas. California does comes in at #3, but that ranking is deceiving considering they saw 9,776 outbound moves, for a net loss of 2,888 residents.
Top 5 States With The Most Net Inbound Moves
So while the previous list showed the top 5 States by raw inbound moves, this list will present which states saw the biggest net gain of residents. It’s calculated by simply subtracting the States number of outbound moves from the number of inbound moves in United Van Lines’ data.
- Florida: +2,354 Net Inbound Moves
- North Carolina: +1,370 Net Inbound Moves
- Arizona: +1,071 Net Inbound Moves
- Texas: +1,053 Net Inbound Moves
- South Carolina: +900 Net Inbound Moves
As a Florida resident who moved down from New York in 2017, it makes me happy to see we weren’t alone in our thinking. Here in Boca Raton, one of the best places to live in Florida, I’ve met more new residents who’ve moved down in the past 12 months, than I met in the previous 3 years combined.
Both of these Top 5 lists favor more populated States because it’s a measure of total and overall volume of people moving. But what about the small states that don’t have big populations or big metros, but are still seeing a large percentage of inbound moves compared to people moving out? We’ve got a metric for that. It’s called Inbound %, and here are the top 5.
Top 5 States With The Highest Inbound Move %
- Idaho: 70% Inbound Moves
- South Carolina: 64% Inbound Moves
- Oregon: 63% Inbound Moves
- Arizona: 62% Inbound Moves
- South Dakota: 62% Inbound Moves
Here we see a few States with smaller populations absorbing a much larger margin of residents than they are losing. Many of these new residents in Idaho, Oregon, South Dakota and Arizona are among the outbound California movers seeking a better quality of life and lower cost of living. Same with New Yorkers moving to South Carolina.
The United Van Lines report solidifies the reports of migration out of the Northeast and Midwest towards the Southeast and West, as well as the mass migration out of California. We won’t see the detailed US Census migration data for 2020 until later this year, but this report is a good indication of what will be in it. We will continue to report on this data as it becomes available.
