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- The US Census Bureau recently released population estimates for the 50 states and DC.
- The release included data on how many people moved into and out of each state.
- The Northeast and Midwest tended to have more people move out than move in, while the South and West tended to have the opposite.
The US Census Bureau recently released its 2017 population estimates for each of the 50 states and Washington DC. In addition to data on how state populations grew or shrank overall between 2016 and 2017, the Bureau also included information on the components of population change.
One of those components is net domestic migration, or the number of people who moved into a state from another state, minus the people who moved out of that state. Unlike other parts of population change like natural change from births and deaths or international migration, domestic migration is by definition zero-sum: Everyone who moves to a state from another state leaves their state of origin.
Northeastern and Midwestern states tended to lose population to domestic migration, as more people moved out than moved in. Meanwhile, Western and Southern states mostly saw gains from other parts of the country. That is consistent with population migration trends in the US that go back decades.
Here's each state's net domestic migration between July 1, 2016 and July 1, 2017, adjusted for the state's 2016 population:
