The pandemic has led to some Americans choosing to move to a different state, whether it be for a brief move to quarantine with others or a permanent change.
Moving marketplace HireAHelper examined which states saw more people moving in than out since the pandemic was declared in March. Using customer data, the company looked at the net gains and losses in the past few months.
The moving resource company notes their data might not reflect all moves during this time as the report does not take into account people who temporarily moved without the help of moving services. It mainly includes hybrid moving data, or moves that include "purchasing transportation and labor separately to save money," according to Mike Glanz, president of moving services for HireAHelper.
Idaho had the largest net gain, where 194% more people moved into the state than out during the pandemic. On the other hand, New York and California had the largest net losses, with 64% and 63% more people moving out of the state than moving in respectively. To find these net changes, HireAHelper calculated the ratio of the number of moves into a state to the number of people moving out.
Glanz told Business Insider in an email that even cities that saw more people moving out than in during the pandemic, such as New York City, "are likely to eventually rebound and we anticipate seeing a resurgence of population growth in metropolitan areas given previous trends."
Almost all states in HireAHelper's analysis saw a drop in the total number of people moving since last year. The exceptions among states with available data were South Dakota, which had 25% more moves between March and June of this year than the same period last year, and Nebraska, with 2% more moves. Montana had the largest decline in the total number of moves from last year at -86%.
HireAHelper found 15% of 1,350 people surveyed who moved between January and June did so because of the pandemic. The most common reason these survey respondents said they moved were because they couldn't afford their place after losing household income due to the pandemic, at 37%. About 33% decided to move to quarantine at the homes of friends and family.
Glanz noted that a survey conducted by Pew Research Center of 9,654 US adults also found 3% moved because of the pandemic, and according to that survey 61% of people decided to move in with family during this time.
The following are the nine states that had the largest ratios of people moving in to people moving out since the declaration of the pandemic. We also included the percent change in total moves between March 11 and June 30 compared to this same period in 2019, using data from HireAHelper, to look at how the pandemic may have negatively impacted state-to-state migration overall.