Here’s where Americans moved to (and from) in 2023
The US Census Bureau has just released its latest estimates for state-to-state migration flows. Americans were asked if they lived in the same place a year ago, and if not, they were asked which state they lived in.
The state that received the largest net increase was Texas, which gained about 130,000 new residents. Over 610,000 people moved to the Lone Star state, while about 480,000 left.
The state that lost the most residents to Texas was California, a trend which Tesla CEO Elon Musk was a part of last year, recently moving the headquarters of X to rural Bastrup, Texas, outside of Austin.
California saw the largest net loss of residents overall, losing close to 270,000, but that’s less than 1% of the state’s estimated population of 38 million people.
Blue states like California, New York and Illinois continued to lose residents to the sunny retirement haven of Florida.
The Carolinas both welcomed large numbers of new residents, with North Carolina netting over 100,000 new residents — the third-largest net gain overall — and South Carolina coming in with about 70,000 — the fourth-largest net gain.
Over the past year and a half, the significance of state abortion laws has carried more consequences, as nearly half of US states have banned or passed significant restrictions on the procedure, though this doesn’t appear to have caused a detectable shift, as Texas has one of the strictest bans on abortion, with no exceptions for rape or incest.
Census Bureau data from 2022 shows that the biggest reasons people moved were related to housing, family, and employment.
