This Map Shows Where Everyone Is Moving To And From In America
Rob Wile Jan. 4, 2013, 5:56 AM
Washington DC led the country in net inward migration for the 7th-consecutive year, according to Atlas Vans' annual U.S. and Canada moving trends map (via Catherine Rampell).
Meanwhile, New York, New Jersey and most Midwest states continue to see high rates of residents checking out.
Here are the top (and bottom) performers:
[credit provider="Atlas" url="http://www.atlasvanlines.com/migration-patterns/"]
Washington's inbound flows have actually been trailing off since 2007, when they hit 701. In 2012 they were just 510.
Still, it clearly has not lost its appeal.
North Carolina's status should also not be surprising — it's the state where our "Mr. U.S. Economy" moved after he was laid off and lost his home (don't worry, he's doing great now).
Wyoming shot back to the top of the outbound list after seeing a flat year in 2011. Nebraska has been "outbound" for two consecutive years. New York has been outbound since at least 2003.
Meanwhile, no Midwestern state has been classified as inbound for more than 10 years, Atlas says.
Atlas gave each state (or province) "a threshold value", calculated as total number of moves multiplied by 0.55. (For example, in a state with 100 moves, at least 55 of them would have to be outgoing to classify the state as outbound). If a state's outbound moves exceeded its threshold value, it is "outbound"; vice-versa for inbound.
Here's the full picture: orange=outbound, red=flat, blue=inbound. For the fractions, bottom=2012 total inward migration #; top=2012 total outward migration #.
And for comparison purposes — and with the caveat that this is merely correlation, not causation — here is the map from Chief Executive magazine showing the country's most and least business-friendly states:
[credit provider="ChiefExecutive.net" url="http://chiefexecutive.net/states2011″]
SEE ALSO: The 10 best housing markets of 2012 >