Voting With Their Feet: States Ranked by Migration and Population Growth
All 50 states ranked by net domestic migration and total population growth, using the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates, the latest available.
How this ranking works
This ranking measures one thing: where Americans actually moved. The primary data source is the U.S. Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 population estimates, which cover July 1, 2024 through July 1, 2025 and were released beginning in December 2025. The headline measure is net domestic migration, the number of people who moved into a state from other states minus the number who left. The secondary measure is total percent population growth over the same window.
Rankings blend three components, which are the subscores published with the top 15 states: absolute net domestic migration, the per-capita migration rate that normalizes for state size, and total percent population growth. Where the Census Bureau publishes an exact figure, it is quoted. Bad values are inverted so that a fuller meter always means a stronger magnet: a large net loss reads as a low score, a large net gain as a high one. The ranking is ordinal and analytical; states in the middle of the table are separated by small margins, and the Census Bureau itself revises estimates annually.
The framework pays no attention to which party governs a state, what its leaders say about it, or how it markets itself. Moving a household across state lines is expensive and disruptive. People do not do it for rhetoric. That is why demographers treat domestic migration as the closest thing to a revealed-preference vote that exists in American data. Deliberately ignored: international migration (measured separately and down sharply everywhere), births, and deaths, except where noted in the narrative.
1North CarolinaSoutheast, pop. approx. 11 million98.0
The number one destination in America, with a net gain of 84,064 domestic migrants in the year ending July 2025, plus total population growth of 1.3 percent, third fastest in the nation (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
The receipts: Led all 50 states in absolute net domestic migration at 84,064 people (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Its 1.3 percent total population growth ranked third nationally, and the inflow lined up with one of only two statistically significant state job gains in the year through May 2026 (BLS, 2026).
2South CarolinaSoutheast, pop. approx. 5.6 million97.1
Gained 66,622 net domestic migrants, third most in absolute terms, and led all states in percent population growth at 1.5 percent, adding 79,958 people (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). On a per-capita basis it is the strongest magnet in the country.
The receipts: Led the nation in percent population growth at 1.5 percent, adding 79,958 residents, and gained 66,622 net domestic migrants, third most in absolute terms (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Relative to its 5.6 million population, that is the strongest per-capita pull of any state.
3TexasSouth, pop. approx. 31 million95.4
Second in absolute net domestic migration at 67,299 and grew 1.2 percent overall (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). The gains continue a decade-long pattern documented in IRS and Census migration data (Tax Foundation migration analysis).
The receipts: Second in absolute net domestic migration at 67,299 and grew 1.2 percent in population (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). It also led the nation in residential building permits, the supply side of the migration story (Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, 2025).
4TennesseeSouth, pop. approx. 7.3 million93.2
Fourth in the nation with a net gain of 42,389 domestic migrants (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). One of nine Southern states among the top 15 migration gainers (NAR analysis of Census data, 2026).
The receipts: Fourth in absolute net domestic migration at 42,389 (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025), part of a Southern bloc that captured nine of the 15 largest gains (NAR, 2026). Its climb to eighth on the Tax Foundation's 2026 competitiveness index tracks the same period (Tax Foundation, 2026).
5IdahoMountain West, pop. approx. 2 million91.8
Second-fastest percent growth in the country at 1.4 percent, and one of the top per-capita net migration destinations alongside South Carolina and North Carolina (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
The receipts: Second-fastest percent population growth at 1.4 percent and among the top per-capita net-migration destinations (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). It carries the highest per-capita rate of new housing permits of any state, the supply that lets the inflow continue (Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, 2025).
6UtahMountain West, pop. approx. 3.5 million89.5
Grew 1.0 percent in the year ending July 2025, among the five fastest states, sustained by both in-migration and the nation's strongest natural increase from births (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
The receipts: Grew 1.0 percent, among the five fastest states, powered by both positive net domestic migration and the nation's strongest natural increase from births (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). It is one of the few states where growth does not depend on migration alone.
7FloridaSoutheast, pop. approx. 23 million88.1
Still positive at 22,517 net domestic migrants, but ranked just 8th, down from 183,646 in 2023 and 310,892 in 2022 (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). The pipeline slowed dramatically; the direction has not yet reversed.
The receipts: Netted 22,517 domestic migrants, still positive but down about 93 percent from its 310,892 peak in 2022 and behind Alabama in absolute terms (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Rising housing and insurance costs are the leading explanations analysts cite (ResiClub, 2026).
8GeorgiaSoutheast, pop. approx. 11.3 million86.3
One of the 31 states with positive net domestic migration in the year ending July 2025, part of a South region that captured nine of the 15 largest migration gains (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025; NAR, 2026).
The receipts: One of the 31 states with positive net domestic migration, part of the Southern bloc that took nine of the 15 largest gains (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025; NAR, 2026). Logistics and workforce strength earned it seventh on CNBC's 2025 business ranking (CNBC, 2025).
9AlabamaSoutheast, pop. approx. 5.2 million84.7
A net domestic migration gainer at 23,358, ahead of Florida in absolute terms, part of the broad shift of movers into lower-cost Southern states (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
The receipts: Gained 23,358 net domestic migrants, more than Florida in absolute terms this cycle (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Third-lowest tax collections per capita in the nation underpin the affordability that draws the inflow (Tax Foundation, FY2023).
10ArizonaSouthwest, pop. approx. 7.7 million83.0
Remained on the positive side of the domestic migration ledger in the year ending July 2025, continuing the Sun Belt pattern that has held since 2020 (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
The receipts: Posted positive net domestic migration, continuing the Sun Belt pattern that has held since 2020 (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Its 2.5 percent flat income tax, the lowest in the country, reinforces the cost advantage (Tax Foundation, 2026).
11OklahomaSouth, pop. approx. 4.1 million81.4
Among the 31 states posting net domestic inflows, aided by some of the lowest housing costs in the country (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025; Zillow Home Value Index, 2026).
The receipts: One of 31 states with positive net domestic migration, aided by some of the lowest housing costs in the country (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025; Zillow, 2026), and an income tax cut effective January 1, 2026 (Tax Foundation, 2026).
12ArkansasSouth, pop. approx. 3.1 million79.9
A net domestic migration gainer in the Vintage 2025 estimates, with home values among the five lowest of any state supporting the inflow (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025; Zillow, 2026).
The receipts: A net domestic migration gainer with home values among the five lowest of any state (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025; Zillow, 2026). It also holds more than 100 days of budget reserves, a sign the growth is being managed rather than strained (Pew, FY2025).
13IndianaMidwest, pop. approx. 6.9 million78.5
Part of the Midwest's quiet turn: positive net domestic migration in the year ending July 2025 as movers priced out of coastal metros look inland (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025; NAR, 2026).
The receipts: Part of the Midwest's quiet turn to positive net domestic migration as movers priced out of coastal metros look inland (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025; NAR, 2026). Its unemployment rate fell 0.4 points over the year, tied for the largest decrease nationally (BLS, 2026).
14MissouriMidwest, pop. approx. 6.2 million77.2
Positive net domestic migration in the Vintage 2025 estimates, another beneficiary of the affordability-driven Midwest gains documented in the 2025 data (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025; NAR, 2026).
The receipts: Positive net domestic migration, a beneficiary of the affordability-driven Midwest gains (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025; NAR, 2026). Unemployment held below the national 4.3 percent through the period (BLS LAUS, 2026).
15MinnesotaMidwest, pop. approx. 5.8 million76.0
The reversal story of the year: from a net domestic loss of 204 people in 2024 to a net gain of about 8,300 in 2025, the largest swing of any state (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
The receipts: Flipped from a net domestic loss of 204 people in 2024 to a net gain of about 8,300 in 2025, the largest single-year swing of any state (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). It is the cleanest counterexample to a purely tax-driven reading of migration.
16NevadaMountain West, pop. approx. 3.3 million74.6
A continuing Sun Belt migration gainer in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, 2025), backing the strongest percentage job growth in the nation in the year through May 2026 (BLS, 2026).
17OhioMidwest, pop. approx. 11.9 million73.1
Net domestic migration of 11,926 in 2025, a sharp turnaround from a loss of 32,482 in 2021, the Midwest reversal in one state's numbers (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
18KentuckySoutheast, pop. approx. 4.5 million71.7
Among the states posting positive net domestic migration in the Vintage 2025 estimates, aided by low housing costs and an income tax cut effective January 1, 2026 (Census Bureau, 2025; Tax Foundation, 2026).
19VirginiaSouth Atlantic, pop. approx. 8.8 million70.3
Population growth held despite the year's federal workforce reductions, but the labor shock is a clear headwind on future inflows (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025; BLS, 2026).
20WashingtonPacific Northwest, pop. approx. 8 million68.9
Continued to add population overall in the Vintage 2025 estimates, backed by the information-sector output that led national first-quarter 2026 GDP growth (Census Bureau, 2025; BEA, 2026).
21DelawareMid-Atlantic, pop. approx. 1 million67.4
One of only three Northeastern states with positive net domestic migration in the year ending July 2025, alongside Maine and New Hampshire (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
22New HampshireNortheast, pop. approx. 1.4 million66.0
A rare Northeastern net domestic gainer, drawing movers from higher-cost neighbors with no income or sales tax as of 2026 (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025; Tax Foundation, 2026).
23MaineNortheast, pop. approx. 1.4 million64.6
One of just three Northeastern states with positive net domestic migration in the Vintage 2025 estimates, though an aging population caps total growth (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
24MontanaMountain West, pop. approx. 1.1 million63.1
A continuing Mountain West destination for remote workers and retirees in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, 2025), with a tax structure the Tax Foundation ranks sixth best (Tax Foundation, 2026).
25NebraskaGreat Plains, pop. approx. 2 million61.7
Roughly flat to modestly positive on net domestic migration in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, 2025), with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation anchoring stability (BLS LAUS, 2026).
26WisconsinMidwest, pop. approx. 5.9 million60.2
Near migration balance in the Vintage 2025 estimates, part of the Midwest's improving picture as affordability draws movers inland (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025; NAR, 2026).
27IowaMidwest, pop. approx. 3.2 million58.8
Roughly balanced net domestic migration in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, 2025), paired with unemployment of 3.2 percent, well below the national rate (BLS, 2026).
28MichiganMidwest, pop. approx. 10 million57.3
Net domestic migration of 1,796 in 2025, a turnaround from a loss of 28,290 in 2021, part of the Midwest's quiet reversal (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
29KansasGreat Plains, pop. approx. 2.9 million55.9
Near migration balance in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, 2025), with low unemployment and an agriculture-and-aviation base that holds population steady (BLS LAUS, 2026).
30WyomingMountain West, pop. approx. 590,00054.4
Modest net domestic migration in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, 2025), with no income tax drawing some in-movers even as the small population limits absolute totals (Tax Foundation, 2026).
31South DakotaGreat Plains, pop. approx. 930,00053.0
Positive to balanced net domestic migration in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, 2025), backed by the lowest unemployment rate in America at 2.1 percent (BLS, 2026).
32North DakotaGreat Plains, pop. approx. 800,00051.5
Near migration balance in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, 2025). The energy economy holds workers when prices are firm, though 2025 GDP growth was the nation's slowest (BEA, 2026).
33New MexicoSouthwest, pop. approx. 2.1 million50.1
Roughly balanced net domestic migration in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, 2025), though a rising unemployment rate over the year is a headwind (BLS LAUS, 2026).
34West VirginiaAppalachia, pop. approx. 1.8 million48.6
Near balance to a modest loss in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, 2025). The most affordable housing in America helps, but an older population weighs on natural increase.
35VermontNortheast, pop. approx. 650,00047.2
Roughly balanced net domestic migration in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, 2025), with the state's aging demographics limiting growth even as its labor market stays tight (BLS LAUS, 2026).
36Rhode IslandNortheast, pop. approx. 1.1 million45.7
A modest net domestic loser within the broadly out-migrating Northeast in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, 2025), pressured by high costs of doing business (CNBC, 2025).
37OregonPacific Northwest, pop. approx. 4.2 million44.3
Slipped toward net domestic loss in the Vintage 2025 estimates as housing costs bit (Census Bureau, 2025), paired with an unemployment rate near 5.2 percent, among the highest in the nation (BLS, 2026).
38HawaiiPacific, pop. approx. 1.4 million42.8
A persistent net domestic outflow in the Vintage 2025 estimates, driven by the nation's second-highest cost of living (Census Bureau, 2025; CNBC, 2025), partly offset historically by international arrivals.
39MississippiSouth, pop. approx. 2.9 million41.4
A rare Southern state near migration balance or slight loss in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, 2025), with slow overall growth despite the nation's lowest tax collections per capita (Tax Foundation, FY2023).
40ColoradoMountain West, pop. approx. 6 million39.9
The most notable new name on the loser list. Colorado was a reliable net recipient of domestic movers for years and is now a net loser (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Housing costs are the leading suspect.
41ConnecticutNortheast, pop. approx. 3.6 million38.5
Back in the loss column as the pandemic-era inflow faded. Every Northeastern state except Delaware, Maine, and New Hampshire posted net domestic outflows in the year ending July 2025 (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
42PennsylvaniaNortheast, pop. approx. 13 million36.8
A persistent net domestic migration loser within a Northeast region that saw almost uniform outflows in the Vintage 2025 estimates (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
43LouisianaSouth, pop. approx. 4.6 million35.2
Among the ten states with the greatest losses from net domestic migration, an outlier in an otherwise-gaining South (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). A 3 percent flat income tax for 2026 aims to slow the exodus (Tax Foundation, 2026).
44MarylandMid-Atlantic, pop. approx. 6.3 million33.9
Lost roughly 27,400 residents on net to other states in the year ending July 2025 (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025), with federal workforce reductions adding new pressure (BLS, 2026).
45MassachusettsNortheast, pop. approx. 7.1 million32.1
A net domestic loss of about 37,900 residents (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). High housing costs keep pushing households outward even as the state's labor market stays strong.
46New JerseyNortheast, pop. approx. 9.5 million30.4
One of the largest sustained domestic out-migration states in the country across the 2020s (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Falling unemployment has not changed the direction of the moving vans (BLS, 2026).
47AlaskaPacific, pop. approx. 740,00028.7
A persistent net domestic outflow in the Vintage 2025 estimates as residents leave for the Lower 48 (Census Bureau, 2025), even in a year the state tied for the third-fastest GDP growth (BEA, 2026). Out-migration and strong dollar output coexist.
48IllinoisMidwest, pop. approx. 12.6 million26.5
A top-tier domestic migration loser again in the Vintage 2025 estimates, extending a streak of annual net losses that spans more than a decade (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
49New YorkNortheast, pop. approx. 19.9 million23.8
Lost about 137,600 residents on net to other states in the year ending July 2025, the second-largest outflow in the nation (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). The pace has slowed from the pandemic peak but remains massive.
50CaliforniaPacific, pop. approx. 39.5 million20.2
The largest net domestic outflow in America at about 229,100 residents in the year ending July 2025 (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). International arrivals and births have historically offset the loss; in 2025, plunging international migration removed that cushion.
Click any entry to open its full scorecard, sub-scores, and the receipts.
Net domestic migration, July 2024 to July 2025
The most honest poll in America
Surveys measure what people say. Migration data measures what they do. The Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates, covering July 2024 through July 2025, count every state's net gain or loss from Americans moving between states. Thirty-one states came out ahead, up from 27 the year before (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Moving a household across state lines costs money, breaks routines, and uproots families. People do not do it lightly, which is exactly why demographers treat these flows as a revealed-preference vote. A politician's approval rating can move on a news cycle. A migration flow cannot; it is the sum of tens of thousands of individual decisions to pack a truck.
The winners are unambiguous. North Carolina led the nation with a net gain of 84,064 domestic migrants. Texas followed at 67,299, South Carolina at 66,622, and Tennessee at 42,389 (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). The South captured nine of the 15 largest gains (NAR analysis, 2026). Measured per capita, which is the fairest comparison because it normalizes for state size, South Carolina, Idaho, and North Carolina were the strongest magnets in the country. That per-capita view is one of the three subscores behind each top-15 rank, and it is why a 2-million-person Idaho can outrank a 31-million-person Texas on pull even while trailing it on raw totals.
The geography of the gains is not random. Every one of the top four gainers is a Southern state, and the top of the per-capita list is Southern and Mountain West. These are, with few exceptions, states with lower housing costs, more permissive homebuilding, and no or low income taxes. Whether those features cause the migration or merely accompany it is the central open question, addressed later. What is not in question is the pattern: the flow runs from the coasts and the Northeast toward the Southeast and the interior West, and it has run that way every year of this decade.
The framework pays no attention to which party governs these states. It counts moving vans. If that principle produces discomfort, the discomfort belongs to the reader, not the data.
The Florida surprise
The single most important change in the 2025 data is Florida. For most of this decade Florida was the migration story: 310,892 net domestic migrants in 2022, 183,646 in 2023. In the year ending July 2025 it gained just 22,517 and ranked 8th, behind Alabama (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
That is not a reversal. Florida is still gaining. But a decline of roughly 93 percent from the 2022 peak is a structural signal, and the likeliest mechanisms are visible in other datasets: home prices that rose faster than incomes, an insurance cost shock, and the end of the pandemic relocation wave. Housing analysts also note a lock-in effect working in the other direction; homeowners in states like Illinois who might have sold and moved south are staying put rather than trade a low mortgage rate for a high one (ResiClub analysis of Census data, 2026).
Colorado tells a similar story in miniature. A reliable gainer for years, it flipped to a net domestic loser in the 2025 estimates and now sits at 40th on this table (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Affordability is not a talking point in this data. It is the mechanism. When a magnet state prices out the movers who used to choose it, the flow slows first and reverses second, and Florida and Colorado are at different points on that same curve.
Who is losing, and how badly
California posted the largest net domestic outflow in the country, about 229,100 people in one year. New York followed at roughly 137,600. Massachusetts lost about 37,900 and Maryland about 27,400 (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Illinois and New Jersey remained in the top tier of losers, extending losses that have run for more than a decade. These are not small states shedding a few thousand residents. They are among the largest economies in the nation, and the outflows are measured in the tens and hundreds of thousands.
The Northeast was nearly uniform. Every state in the region except Delaware, Maine, and New Hampshire lost more movers than it gained (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Those three exceptions are instructive: two are small, low-cost northern New England states drawing movers from pricier neighbors, and Delaware combines no sales tax with retiree-friendly costs. Louisiana was the South's outlier, landing among the ten largest losers in a region that otherwise dominated the gainer list.
Two cautions keep this honest. First, domestic migration is not total population change; California and New York still have births and, historically, international arrivals. Second, the pace of out-migration from both states has slowed from the pandemic peak. The direction has not changed. The magnitude has. A state can be losing residents every year and still be losing fewer than it did two years ago, and both California and New York fit that description in 2025.
The composition of the loser list also carries a warning the winners' list does not. These are, disproportionately, the states with the largest tax bases, the deepest capital markets, and the most concentrated high-wage employment. When they lose residents on net, they are often losing prime-age workers and families rather than retirees, which erodes the future tax base faster than a headcount alone suggests. Illinois has run net domestic losses for more than a decade, a slow, compounding drain that is now visible in its fiscal position as well as its population (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). The out-migration and the balance-sheet strain are not separate stories. They are the same story measured two ways.
Reading the subscores: raw totals versus true pull
Each of the top 15 states carries three subscores that decompose its rank: absolute net domestic migration, the per-capita migration rate, and total percent population growth. Reading them together prevents the most common mistake in migration coverage, which is treating a big state's large raw number as proof of a strong magnet. Texas gained 67,299 movers, a huge absolute figure, but spread across 31 million residents that is a modest per-capita rate, which is why its per-capita subscore sits well below its net-migration subscore (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
South Carolina is the mirror image and the reason it ranks second overall despite trailing Texas on raw totals. Its 66,622 net migrants landed in a state of 5.6 million, producing the strongest per-capita pull in the country and the fastest total growth at 1.5 percent (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). All three of its subscores run near full. North Carolina is the rare state that scores high on all three at scale, leading in absolute terms while still posting a top-tier per-capita rate and 1.3 percent growth, which is why it holds the top rank (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
Minnesota shows why the subscores stay honest at the bottom of the top 15. Its raw gain of about 8,300 is small, and its per-capita and growth subscores are modest, but the direction of change, a flip from loss to gain, is the largest of any state (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). The composite rewards the reversal without pretending the magnitude rivals the Carolinas. The meters show exactly that: present but not full.
The immigration variable just changed everything
The Vintage 2025 estimates carry a second headline that reshapes how the whole table should be read: net international migration fell in every state, a historic decline that slowed total U.S. population growth sharply (Census Bureau, 2026; Brookings analysis, 2026). This matters because states like California, New York, and New Jersey long papered over domestic losses with international arrivals. With that inflow down everywhere, domestic migration now drives total growth to a degree it has not in decades.
That is why South Carolina, at 1.5 percent, was the fastest-growing state in America in the year ending July 2025, followed by Idaho at 1.4 percent, North Carolina at 1.3 percent, Texas at 1.2 percent, and Utah at 1.0 percent (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Every one of them is a domestic migration winner. The states people choose are now, almost mechanically, the states that grow. In prior decades a state could lose domestic movers and still grow through immigration; in 2025 that escape hatch closed, and the growth table collapsed onto the migration table.
The implication for the losing states is stark. Without the international cushion, California and New York now grow slowly or shrink outright, because the domestic outflow is no longer offset. This is the least-discussed and most consequential fact in the 2025 data, and it is why the migration ranking and the population-growth ranking, which used to diverge, now point the same direction for nearly every state. In prior years a reader could reasonably argue that a state's domestic losses did not matter much because immigration made up the difference. That argument no longer holds against the 2025 numbers. The domestic flow is now the growth engine, and the states that lose it are the states that shrink.
The Midwest quietly became a destination
The loudest migration stories are the Sun Belt gains and the coastal losses, but the most interesting change in the 2025 data is quieter and geographically unexpected. The Midwest, long a region of steady out-migration, turned. Ohio swung from a net loss of 32,482 domestic migrants in 2021 to a net gain of 11,926 in 2025. Michigan went from a 28,290-person loss to a 1,796-person gain. Minnesota flipped from a 204-person loss to roughly 8,300 gained, the largest single-year reversal of any state (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
The mechanism is affordability meeting a rate-locked housing market. As Sun Belt magnets like Florida and Colorado priced themselves out of reach, and as high mortgage rates discouraged homeowners from selling low-rate homes to buy expensive ones elsewhere, the calculus shifted toward lower-cost interior states that had been overlooked for a decade (ResiClub, 2026). Indiana, Missouri, and Wisconsin all sit in the upper half of this table for the same reason. The Midwest did not suddenly become glamorous. It became the affordable option in a market where affordability was the binding constraint.
This matters for how the whole table should be read. The migration map is not simply Sun Belt versus everywhere else. It is a cost gradient. States near the top combine positive net flows with the room and the price points to absorb them. When a Sun Belt state loses that combination, as Colorado did, it falls. When a Midwestern state gains it, as Ohio did, it rises. The 2025 data is the clearest evidence yet that price, not region, is the master variable.
What the moving vans do not tell you
Honesty requires the limits. This ranking records where people moved, not why, and the why is genuinely contested. The destination states are overwhelmingly lower-tax, which tax-policy advocates read as cause (Americans for Tax Reform; Tax Foundation). Housing economists counter that the same list is explained by home prices and new construction, and they have a clean counterexample: high-tax Minnesota flipped to positive migration in 2025 while low-tax Louisiana kept losing residents (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). If taxes were the sole driver, neither of those moves would happen.
Climate, remote work, family ties, and the supply of new housing all move households too, and the data cannot separate them cleanly. Idaho and Texas lead in per-capita housing permits, which lets their inflows continue where supply-constrained magnets like Colorado and Florida choke off (Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, 2025). A state can want more residents and still fail to grow if it does not build the homes to house them, and several coastal states are in exactly that position. The Census Bureau counts the moves; it does not record the motives.
What it does establish beyond argument is the direction and the scale, and those are enough to make this the most reliable revealed-preference measure in American public data. Every one of the disputes about cause takes the direction as given. Nobody argues Americans are moving into California and out of the Carolinas. The argument is only about why, and the data is honest enough to support several answers at once. The reader is left to weigh the causes, which is where the honest work of interpretation begins, and where this ranking deliberately stops rather than pretend to a certainty the numbers do not provide.
Fastest total population growth, year ending July 2025
How the flows shifted: from the 2022 peak to now
The migration map of 2026 is the same shape it has held all decade, but the magnitudes have changed dramatically, and the change is the story. At the pandemic peak in 2022, Florida alone netted 310,892 domestic migrants (Census Bureau). By the year ending July 2025 that number had fallen to 22,517, a decline of about 93 percent, dropping Florida from the undisputed leader to eighth (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). The direction did not reverse. The pipeline narrowed.
The number of gaining states expanded even as the flows shrank. Thirty-one states posted positive net domestic migration in the year ending July 2025, up from 27 the prior year (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). The Midwest drove most of that expansion. Ohio swung from a 32,482-person loss in 2021 to an 11,926-person gain in 2025, Michigan from a 28,290-person loss to a 1,796-person gain, and Minnesota flipped from a 204-person loss to roughly 8,300 gained (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). Housing analysts attribute the shift to affordability and to a mortgage-rate lock-in effect that keeps would-be movers from selling low-rate homes to buy in more expensive Sun Belt markets (ResiClub, 2026).
The largest single change of all came from outside the domestic ledger. Net international migration fell in every state in the Vintage 2025 estimates, a historic decline that slowed total U.S. population growth sharply (Census Bureau, 2026; Brookings, 2026). For states like California and New York that had long used international arrivals to paper over domestic losses, the cushion vanished. That is why domestic migration now drives total growth to a degree it has not in decades, and why the rank order here maps so closely onto which states grew at all.
Florida's shrinking net domestic migration
Midwest migration reversals, 2021 versus 2025
What the evidence settles
The direction of movement is settled beyond argument. Americans are moving, on net, from California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and most of the Northeast into the Carolinas, Texas, Tennessee, and the Mountain West, and they have been doing so every year this decade (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025). It is also settled that the flows are shrinking in absolute size, that Florida's inflow collapsed from its 2022 peak, that the number of gaining states rose to 31, and that a historic drop in international migration slowed growth in every state.
What remains contested
Why people move remains contested. Tax-policy advocates point out that the destination states are overwhelmingly lower-tax (Americans for Tax Reform; Tax Foundation). Housing economists counter that the same list is explained by home prices and new construction, and note that high-tax Minnesota flipped to positive migration while low-tax Louisiana kept losing. Climate, remote work, and family ties all move households too. The Census Bureau counts the moves; it does not record the motives, and no dataset yet separates them cleanly.
Questions people ask
Which state gained the most people from domestic migration in 2025?
North Carolina, with a net gain of 84,064 residents from other states in the year ending July 1, 2025, per the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates. Texas (67,299) and South Carolina (66,622) followed.
Which states are losing the most residents?
California lost about 229,100 residents on net to other states, the most in the nation, followed by New York at about 137,600. Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Maryland also posted large losses (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
Is Florida still gaining people?
Yes, but far less than before. Florida netted 22,517 domestic migrants in 2025, ranking 8th, down from 310,892 in 2022. Rising housing and insurance costs are the leading explanations.
What was the fastest-growing state overall?
South Carolina, which grew 1.5 percent between July 2024 and July 2025, adding 79,958 people, the fastest rate of any state (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
Why did the Midwest start gaining migrants?
Affordability and a mortgage-rate lock-in effect. Ohio, Michigan, and Minnesota all flipped from net losses in 2021 to net gains in 2025 as movers priced out of coastal and Sun Belt metros looked inland (Census Bureau, Vintage 2025).
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 National and State Population Estimates press kit https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-kits/2026/national-state-population-estimates.html
- U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Population Growth Slows Due to Historic Decline in Net International Migration https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2026/population-growth-slows.html
- U.S. Census Bureau, Net International Migration Down in Every State https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2026/03/net-international-migration.html
- U.S. Census Bureau, State Population Totals and Components of Change: 2020-2025 https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-state-total.html
- National Association of Realtors, Top 15 States for Population and Migration Trends in 2025 https://www.nar.realtor/blogs/economists-outlook/top-15-states-for-population-and-migration-trends-in-2025-the-south-leads-the-midwest-gains
- Brookings Institution, Reduced immigration slowed population growth for the nation and most states https://www.brookings.edu/articles/reduced-immigration-slowed-population-growth-for-the-nation-and-most-states-new-census-data-show/
- ResiClub, Net domestic migration: Which states are gaining and losing Americans https://www.resiclubanalytics.com/p/net-domestic-migration-which-states-are-gaining-and-losing-americans-2025
- Americans for Tax Reform, New Census Migration Data Shows Americans Moving From High- to Low-Tax States https://atr.org/new-census-migration-data-shows-americans-moving-from-high-to-low-tax-states/
- Tax Foundation, State Migration Trends https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-migration-trends-map-americans-moving-population-changes/
- Visual Capitalist, Mapped: Which U.S. States Gained the Most Residents in 2025 https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-which-u-s-states-gained-the-most-residents-in-2025/
- U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey, Permits by State https://www.census.gov/construction/bps/statemonthly.html
Parker, T. E. (2026). Voting With Their Feet: States Ranked by Migration and Population Growth. US Political Rank. https://uspoliticalrank.com/rankings/states-by-population-migration<iframe src="https://uspoliticalrank.com/embed/states-by-population-migration" width="100%" height="520" style="border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius:8px" title="Voting With Their Feet: States Ranked by Migration and Population Growth" loading="lazy"></iframe>Keep reading
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