Net Domestic Migration Gains & Losses by State since 2000

Since 2000, there has been substantial net domestic migration between the states of the United States.

The largest gains have been in Florida (3.4 million), Texas (2.7 million), North Carolina (1,5 million), Arizona (1.4 million and Georgia (1.0) million. Five other states exceeded 500,000, including South Carolina, Tennessee, Nevada, Colorado and Washington (Figure 1). However, Colorado and Washington, along with Oregon (which gained over 400,000) have slipped into net domestic migration losses, with costs of living driven up due to excessively heightened housing costs.

The largest losses were in New York (4.0 million), California (3.8 million), Illinois (1.9 million and New Jersey, at 1.1 million. Ohio, Massachusetts and Louisiana lost more than 500,000 net domestic migrants (Figure 2).

During the period, annual net domestic migration numbers were not reported for 2000 or for 2010.

Complete data is in the referenced spreadsheet: download/view here

Wendell Cox is principal of Demographia, an international public policy firm located in the St. Louis metropolitan area. He is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy in Winnipeg and a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Demographics and Policy at Chapman University in Orange, California. He has served as a visiting professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris. His principal interests are economics, poverty alleviation, demographics, urban policy and transport. He is co-author of the annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey and author of Demographia World Urban Areas.

Mayor Tom Bradley appointed him to three terms on the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (1977-1985) and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich appointed him to the Amtrak Reform Council, to complete the unexpired term of New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman (1999-2002). He is author of War on the Dream: How Anti-Sprawl Policy Threatens the Quality of Life and Toward More Prosperous Cities: A Framing Essay on Urban Areas, Transport, Planning and the Dimensions of Sustainability.