Saturday, January 9, 2016

A nation on the move


United Van Lines has released its 39th Annual National Movers Study, which "tracks customers’ state-to-state migration patterns" during 2015.  Here's a visual representation of its findings for the lower 48 states of the Union.  Click the graphic for a larger view.




It's noteworthy that most of the states losing large numbers of people are run by big-government, statist administrations and dominated by the Democratic Party.  The top five population losers were:
  1. New Jersey
  2. New York
  3. Illinois
  4. Connecticut
  5. Ohio

Those gaining large numbers of people often have statist pockets within them (usually large cities) but in general are less big-government-oriented and more business- and individual-friendly.  The top five population gainers were:
  1. Oregon
  2. South Carolina
  3. Vermont
  4. Idaho
  5. North Carolina

Texas, which Miss D. and I will henceforth call home, is ninth on the list of top population gainers.  Looks like we're following a trend, although our reasons aren't primarily economic and therefore are probably different from most.

Peter

10 comments:

Jacquejet said...

The problem being, these movers come to states like mine, North Carolina, and keep on voting like the did in their old state. It won't be long before their new home is just as screwed up as their old one. They can't put 2+2 together.

richard mcenroe said...

It costs twice as much to rent a Pennske van OUT of CA as it does to rent one TO CA. Supply and Demand tells its own hard truth bay-bee...

clark myers said...

The raw data are proportions -ratio of moving in:moving out so to speak - not headcounts.

Hence the conclusion that a given state is gaining or losing head count cannot be supported by the data. A state might have two truckloads out and one truckload in with no information about about the size of each group moving.

I don't doubt that for the larger states the numbers are also fairly large. For the smaller states, which are more bring your own money states like Idaho, I suspect but do not know that folks moving in are retired couples and folks moving out are recent college graduates with large families.

Judy said...

Seeing Kansas on the list doesn't surprise me, and for two reasons JOBS and TAXES. That's why we left.

Rolf said...

Jacquejet - yes, exactly. When they bring the same screwed up, self-destructive policies with them - across state lines or national lines - it's the same. If people move in and assimilate into the culture that offered them what they came for, it's all good, and they are (relatively speaking) quite welcome. When they come in and bring the same dysfunctional thinking that produced suboptimal results "back home," it's a problem for everyone.

What astonishes me is the number of bright and (supposedly) well-educated people that live in a place and embrace diversity and immigration, yet can't bring themselves to admit that fundamental problem. Tighter and tighter the rubber-band is being wound, it it.

Jonna Hayden said...

Oregon is NOT a business-friendly state, and has crushing income taxes...and high unemployment. But it does have great services for the homeless. I wonder if they're including all the college kids who move in every Fall.

Anonymous said...

For the most part, you are correct, however Ohio is NOT in the big government statist camp (though some of its cities are) and Oregon is quite firmly in the big government statist camp. I don't know why people are moving to Oregon, but I do know that people are moving out of the dying big government cities of Ohio; quite a few of them are moving to other parts of the state that welcome them and have jobs available. To those moving out of the state, I say Good Riddance! (as an Ohio resident)

Douglas2 said...

The data source here is only people who have contracted United Van Lines to do the move. As such, it is a sample of the American population that is biased, (in a statistical sense) with an overabundance of family units where there is a salaried employee working in a field where the searches are national -- those are the people who get to negotiate moving expenses as part of their contract. The places where these people move from-and-to might not be the same as the population as a whole.
Summer before last, I had a few $10,000 quotes to move the contents of a two-bedroom apartment a distance of 800 miles. We ended up hiring local packers and renting a Penske truck.

Inconsiderate Bastard said...

I would like to inform everyone that South Carolina is a terrible, terrible place to live. We have cold winters in the mountains, hippies at the coast and a RINO for a governor, not to mention hot summers.

Ignore our extremely low taxes, wonderful fall and spring weather, friendly people and easy-going life style. They're all a facade created to make northern liberals hate us.

You'll be much happier living in Texas or Florida. Neither of those has an income tax, and you won't automatically get tea with sugar in it there, either.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to Texas, Peter! :)