Ryan Glasspiegel
Videos by OutKick
Every year, U-Haul releases net migration rankings by calculating how many one-way rentals enter a state and subtracting how many leave it. There was a sample size of over two million moves last year. Here are their state rankings for 2020, with the 2019 ranking in parentheses:
1. Tennessee (12)
2. Texas (2)
3. Florida (1)
4. Ohio (7)
5. Arizona (20)
6. Colorado (42)
7. Missouri (13)
8. Nevada (24)
9. North Carolina (3)
10. Georgia (16)
11. Arkansas (23)
12. Indiana (9)
13. Wisconsin (41)
14. Oklahoma (14)
15. South Carolina (4)
16. West Virginia (22)
17. Utah (8)
18. Kentucky (37)
19. Montana (26)
20. Minnesota (15)
21. Kansas (18)
22. Alabama (6)
23. New Hampshire (31)
24. Iowa (30)
25. South Dakota (28)
26. Vermont (10)
27. Delaware (21)
28. Virginia (39)
29. Maine (33)
30. Idaho (11)
31. Mississippi (25)
32. Nebraska (19)
33. Wyoming (27)
34. Alaska (17)
35. Rhode Island (35)
36. Washington (5)
37. North Dakota (32)
38. Washington, D.C. (38)*
39. New Mexico (36)
40. Michigan (48)
41. Pennsylvania (46)
42. New York (43)
43. Connecticut (34)
44. Louisiana (40)
45. Oregon (29)
46. Maryland (45)
47. Massachusetts (47)
48. New Jersey (44)
49. Illinois (50)
50. California (49)
Note that Washington DC is listed here but Hawaii, which you cannot drive to or from, is not.
While there are some outliers, you can see pretty clear trends that movers consider high state taxes and more lockdown restrictions to be bad, and low taxes and less lockdown restrictions to be bad. Tennessee, Texas, and Florida all have no state income tax. California state income tax reaches as high as 12.3 percent for high earners. Illinois’ is 4.95 percent, but there is a 6.25 percent sales tax (which climbs up to over 11 percent in Chicago). New Jersey’s state income tax is 10.75 percent. As you can see by last year’s numbers, some of these trends were already in place before the pandemic.
According to U-Haul the biggest growth regions in Tennessee include Clarksville, Cleveland, Cookeville, Knoxville, Maryville, Murfreesboro, Nashville, and the tri-cities (Kingsport, Johnson City, and Bristol).
Other than taxes and pandemic restrictions, what trends do you notice here?
I noticed that when California couldn’t suck any worse, it actually did. Take that, Louisiana
Washington State dropped from 5 to 36 lol. I know people that have left and are in the process of leaving this state, and I can’t blame them one bit.
God blessed Texas. Sunshine, warm weather, football & bbq. It’s all here.
Lol, prepare yourself #2 because #18 through #50 is packing their trash and heading your way!
Lives in Illinois all my life. Would leave for Arizona now but the wife wants a 5 year plan. Fine, I’ll grit my teeth and bear it for another few years.
After that, see ya miserable winters and awful state governance.
Not “sweet home chicago”, anymore.
Moved to AZ 12 years ago from socal generally love it would never go back the state legislature is still republican controlled but on national votes we seem to be purple if not blue disappointing but it would be better than chitown i would imagine welcome whenever you would decide to come.
Please note: Don’t bring your blue state politics with you, remember you are leaving a crappy state for a reason!!
Trust me. That ain’t me. I can’t stand the nonsense of leftists.
No worries, it was meant in general terms.
The trend I see is a bunch of red states turning purple and the blue states turning full communist…because leftists are locusts and vampires…and never learn.
Exactly right, Ray!
Unfortunately, Leftists never learn. They never figure out that low standards, free money and high taxes cause the problems they are fleeing (again!).
Yeah, people fleeing leftist states like they are fleeing a burning building, but 85mm people voted for this garbage. Right. For God’s sake blue state refugees, do not vote Democrat in your new state, or simply don’t vote.
My home state of Tennessee may not be red for very long. Sad.
These goons take their voting habits with them. It’s terrible.