The Tax Foundation looks into what states Americans are moving to and what states Americans are leaving.

Welcome to Idaho! 

States compete with each other in a number of ways. Attracting (and retaining) new residents is one of the areas of competition.

To help quantify where individuals move, United Van Lines, the largest moving company in America, releases a report each January compiling its client data for the previous year. By comparing the number of inbound moves to the number of outbound moves, United Van Lines data gives us the first insights into annual interstate migration, available much sooner than government data sources.

The map below shows the top inbound and outbound states for 2016.  

South Dakota, Vermont, and Oregon were the states with the highest percentage of inbound moves. New Jersey, Illinois, and New York had the highest percentage of outbound moves. South Dakota had a 68 percent inbound rate, while New Jersey had a 63 percent outbound rate.

Individuals continue to move south and west. In the study, United Van Lines puts much of that trend on the impact of the aging population, stating, “This year’s data clearly reflects retirees’ location preferences. We are seeing more retirees than ever decide to relocate, and as a result, new retirement hubs are popping up in Western states.” One in four United Van Lines customers who moved to the West stated the move was due to retirement.