Census Bureau: Fla. top U.S. state for in-migration
WASHINGTON – April 29, 2019 – Movers to and from the U.S. South make up the largest domestic migration flows at the regional level – and notably large flows at the state and county levels are in the South or in the West.
Some of the largest state- and county-level flows are to or from Florida, California or Arizona.
State-to-state migration flows
The 2018 American Community Survey (ACS) state-to-state migration flows table provides estimates of the number of people in the United States moving between geographies within the past year. These geographies include the 50 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and abroad.
Moving to Florida
Florida had the most domestic in-movers, with 566,476 people moving from another state within the past year. The states with the next highest in-migration flows are Texas with 524,511 and California with 523,131.
New York lost the most residents to Florida, with 63,722 ex-New Yorkers become new Floridians. The second-highest contributor was Georgia with 38,800 in-movers.
Moving out of California
California had the most domestic out-movers, with 661,026 people leaving the state within the past year. The states with the next highest outmigration flows are Texas with 467,338 out-movers, New York with 452,580, and Florida with 447,586.
Among the five states that received the most out-movers from California, several are adjacent to California or nearby: Texas (63,174 out-movers), Arizona (59,233), Washington (52,484), Oregon (50,109) and Nevada (47,513).
Net migration, flows and mover rates by region
In 2018, 10.1 percent of people (about 32.4 million) in the United States moved.
Net migration
The South continued a pattern of net population gains from domestic migration and has done so most years since 1981.
In 2018, about 1.2 million people moved to the South from another region, while only about 714,000 moved from the South to another region, resulting in a net gain of about 512,000 people. If movers from abroad are included, the net gain from migration to the South is about 959,000 people.
Flows
There are 12 region-to-region migration flows and the five largest in 2018 were either to the South or out of the South. The South drew about 412,000 people from the Northeast, 356,000 from the Midwest and 459,000 from the West. The region lost about 317,000 to the West and 276,000 to the Midwest.
The remaining seven region-to-region flows range from about 54,000 to 162,000 people.
Mover rates
The Northeast had the lowest overall mover rate in 2018, at 7.7 percent. The other three regions do not differ statistically from one another, at 10.4 percent for the Midwest, 10.8 percent for the South, and 10.7 percent for the West.
Compared to the 2018 overall national mover rate of 10.1 percent, the Northeast mover rate is lower, the South and West mover rates are both higher, and the Midwest mover rate does not differ statistically.
The data was announced by Kristin Kerns and L. Slagan Locklear, statisticians in the Census Bureau's Journey-to-Work and Migration Statistics Branch.
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