Where People Want to Move

According to the American Moving and Storage Association, more than 35 million Americans move every year.

The reasons vary greatly — some people move for new jobs, some to be closer to their family, some to buy a home after renting, and some just to live in a climate they like better.

With so many families on the move and so many reasons for relocating, we started to wonder: Where do people most want to move? What are the most popular states to move to, and what are the states most people are moving from?

Using data from moveBuddha’s online moving cost calculator, we were able to get a pretty good idea of where people have been moving to and from in recent years. And state by state, we were able to find out where people from different places most want to move.

If you’ve ever wondered where people from your home state would rather live — or where are the new people in your home state are coming from — this is the place to find out. Here’s where people want to move, state by state, and, further down, the top states people are moving to and from.

Where Do People Want To Move From Each State?

Where Do People Want To Move From Each State?

State of Origin Where People Want to Move How Many Searches?
Alabama Texas 35
Alaska California 16
Arizona Washington 83
Arkansas Texas 32
California Texas 634
Colorado Texas 114
Connecticut Florida 98
Delaware Florida 11
District of Columbia California 67
Florida Georgia 274
Georgia Florida 578
Hawaii California 13
Idaho Washington 32
Illinois California 288
Indiana Texas 82
Iowa California 34
Kansas California 38
Kentucky California 36
Louisiana Texas 59
Maine Florida 25
Maryland California 142
Massachusetts California 213
Michigan California 127
Minnesota California 73
Mississippi Washington 12
Missouri Texas 81
Montana Washington 9
Nebraska Florida 33
Nevada Texas 56
New Hampshire Florida 27
New Jersey Florida 165
New Mexico Texas 47
New York California 420
North Carolina Florida 123
North Dakota Texas 20
Ohio Florida 145
Oklahoma Texas 53
Oregon California 134
Pennsylvania California 188
Rhode Island North Carolina 18
South Carolina North Carolina 59
South Dakota Minnesota 7
Tennessee California 87
Texas California 346
Utah Texas 47
Vermont New Mexico 17
Virginia California 181
Washington California 181
West Virginia Florida 26
Wisconsin Florida 76
Wyoming Kansas 8

What Are the Top Destination States Overall?

Looking at that list, it’s pretty easy to tell what states people are most interested in moving to overall — they come up over and over for state after state. From MoveBuddha’s data, here’s how all the states rank for how many people want to move to them.

What Are the Top Destination States Overall?

 

Rank Destination State How Many Searches?
1 California 4,082
2 Florida 3,939
3 Texas 3,616
4 Washington 2,099
5 North Carolina 1,930
6 Arizona 1,844
7 Colorado 1,816
8 Georgia 1,568
9 New York 1,551
10 Virginia 1,260
11 Illinois 1,197
12 Pennsylvania 1,187
13 Oregon 1,167
14 Massachusetts 1,052
15 Tennessee 1,036
16 Ohio 957
17 South Carolina 908
18 Nevada 763
19 Maryland 724
20 Michigan 636
21 New Jersey 631
22 Missouri 595
23 Minnesota 544
24 Wisconsin 536
25 Indiana 493
26 Utah 473
27 Idaho 440
28 Alabama 395
29 New Mexico 376
30 Kentucky 375
31 Connecticut 367
32 District of Columbia 326
33 Oklahoma 287
34 Maine 282
35 Louisiana 277
36 Iowa 270
37 Kansas 249
38 Arkansas 226
39 Montana 220
40 New Hampshire 208
41 Delaware 162
42 Mississippi 145
43 Nebraska 133
44 Vermont 131
45 Hawaii 120
46 Rhode Island 115
47 Alaska 111
48 Wyoming 106
49 West Virginia 103
50 South Dakota 82
51 North Dakota 60

What Are the Top Exodus States Overall?

That’s where people are moving to, but what about where they’re moving from? What are the states people can’t wait to hightail it out of? Here’s how all the states rank for how many people want to move away from them, according to MoveBuddha’s data.

What Are the Top Exodus States Overall?

 

Rank Exodus State How Many Searches?*
1 California 5,242
2 Florida 2,723
3 Texas 2,634
4 New York 2,503
5 Illinois 2,134
6 Georgia 1,867
7 Pennsylvania 1,600
8 Virginia 1,571
9 Washington 1,367
10 North Carolina 1,304
11 Ohio 1,237
12 Massachusetts 1,209
13 Colorado 1,202
14 New Jersey 1,196
15 Michigan 1,026
16 Maryland 996
17 Arizona 981
18 Tennessee 789
19 Indiana 762
20 Oregon 741
21 Missouri 669
22 Wisconsin 664
23 Minnesota 655
24 Connecticut 617
25 Nevada 526
26 South Carolina 525
27 Utah 429
28 Kansas 388
29 Louisiana 373
30 District of Columbia 369
31 Iowa 367
32 Kentucky 349
33 Alabama 332
34 Oklahoma 328
35 New Mexico 278
36 Nebraska 243
37 Arkansas 224
38 Idaho 216
39 New Hampshire 191
40 West Virginia 189
41 Rhode Island 164
42 Mississippi 141
43 Maine 141
44 Montana 102
45 North Dakota 101
46 Vermont 99
47 Alaska 97
48 Delaware 93
49 Hawaii 88
50 South Dakota 70
51 Wyoming 58

*Search numbers weighted based on state populations.

Methodology

All this data was collected from moveBuddha’s moving cost calculator, taking the starting and ending destinations people entered for their moves to determine how many people were looking at moving to and from each state.

For the states people want to move to, data is presented here in the exact numbers we pulled from that calculator — those are exactly how many times people have used the moveBuddha calculator to look at moving to all those top destination states.

For the states people can’t wait to leave behind, though, we wanted to make things a little more fair, so the numbers are weighted based on state populations.

We can’t say why any of these states ranked the way it did — your guess is as good as ours. But whether your state is a top destination or a major exodus state, this data only proves one thing: People love where they live for all kinds of different reasons, and there’s really no place like home.

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