Key Facts:
- IRS data counts how many taxpayers move into and out of a state each year. A way to conceptualize that data is to calculate how often, on average, a taxpayer enters or leaves a state on net.
- Florida gains a new taxpayer on net most frequently, adding a new resident every 2 minutes and 9 seconds — followed by Texas (2 minutes, 53 seconds) and North Carolina (6 minutes, 21 seconds).
- California loses another taxpayer most frequently on net (every 1 minute, 44 seconds), followed by New York (2 minutes, 23 seconds), and Illinois (6 minutes, 4 seconds).
If states are the “laboratories of democracy,” some laboratories are proving to be more attractive than others. NTUF’s recent series of reports on interstate migration of taxpayers shows that clearly.
Numbers, when they reach a certain number of digits, can be hard to put into context. Our brains are not wired to process them into useful takeaways. For example, the latest IRS migration data release, covering residency changes between 2021 and 2022, shows that California lost 302,543 residents, on net, to other states. That certainly sounds like a lot of people, but if the number was 352,000, or 392,000, would it translate any differently in our minds?
One way to consider these figures in a more accessible format is in terms of frequency. In other words, for states that lose residents on net to interstate migration, how often is someone packing up and moving to greener pastures? And conversely, for states that gain residents on net, how often is someone previously living in another state choosing your state to start the next chapter of their life?
The map below shows how often each state is gaining/losing residents from/to other states. In each case, the data presented below is based on net interstate migration (taking into account moves in both directions).
The states gaining new residents most frequently are Florida (every 2 minutes and 9 seconds), Texas (2 minutes, 53 seconds), North Carolina (6 minutes, 21 seconds), South Carolina (7 minutes, 30 seconds), and Tennessee (8 minutes, 42 seconds). In total, 16 states gain a new resident at least once per hour.
Conversely, California loses residents even more rapidly than Florida gains them — with another former Golden Stater finding greener pastures every 1 minute and 44 seconds. The bottom five states are rounded out by New York (with a new emigrant every 2 minutes and 23 seconds), Illinois (6 minutes, 4 seconds), Massachusetts (11 minutes, 38 seconds), and New Jersey (14 minutes, 14 seconds). Eleven states lose additional residents at least once an hour.
A few states are so close to breaking even on migration that migration frequency would be better measured with a calendar than a clock. Utah, for instance, gains a new resident every 1 day, 8 hours, while Mississippi loses a resident every 13 hours, 9 minutes.
Oh, and watch out, California — based on the average adult silent English reading rate of 238 words per minute, another Californian left the state while you were reading this report.
Conclusion
Migration between states is the ultimate expression of revealed preferences — while many politicians and pundits may claim that tax-and-spend policies are what Americans want, the reality is that, year after year, there is steady movement from high-tax states to more fiscally responsible ones. Taxpayers want to live in states that do not treat them as endless sources of funding for politicians’ pet projects.
In short, interstate movement isn’t just a series of arrows in different directions, it’s proof that Americans want lower taxes and limited government — and you can measure it with your watch.