The Census Bureau regularly publishes estimates of state-to-state migration based on 1-year ACS data, and the latest show that, of the 331 million people 1 year and over in the United States in 2023, approximately 40 million – or roughly 1 in 8 people (12.1%) – had moved to a new residence within the prior year.

Over 7.5 million of those movers made interstate moves. Overall, they made up 2.3% of the U.S. population (approximately 1 in 44 people) and 18.9% of movers currently residing in the United States (about 1 in 5 movers). 

The number of recent in-movers varied noticeably between states in 2023.

There was a relatively close relationship between the number of recent in-movers (Figure 1A) and state population (Figure 1B). Not surprisingly, more populous states generally attracted more in-movers, and less populous states drew fewer.

What are the states where someone living there in 2023 was most likely to have moved from another state within the past year?

Figure 2 shows the likelihood that someone was a recent domestic in-mover. While Figure 1A and 1B had many noticeable similarities, a largely different set of states emerges in the darkest shade in Figure 2.

In addition to Washington, D.C., people in the following states had a relatively high likelihood of having moved there within the last year even though each state had fewer than 100,000 arrivals: North Dakota (4.4%); Alaska (4.2%); Idaho (4.2%); Vermont (4.2%); and Wyoming (4.0%). All five states had relatively small populations (775,000; 725,000; 1.9 million; 643,000; and 578,000, respectively). 

This pattern is not without exceptions. Colorado, for example, did not have a relatively small population (5.8 million) but had around 233,000 domestic in-movers – they made up a sizable 4.0% of its population in 2023.

Like California, certain states with relatively high numbers of in-movers also had relatively low shares of in-movers.

For example, New York, with a population of 19.4 million, welcomed roughly 303,000 in-movers within the prior year, yet they made up just 1.6% of the population.

Similarly, Pennsylvania (population 12.8 million) and Illinois (12.4 million) saw around 238,000 and 204,000 people, respectively, arrive from other states; these in-movers made up 1.9% and 1.6% of their populations, respectively.

Overall, the 2023 state-to-state migration flows data show that the relative number of in-movers to a state does not necessarily align with the relative share of in-movers to that state.