- Nearly 490,000 Americans left Florida last year for states including Georgia and Texas.
- The typical mover leaving Florida pulls in $48,000 a year, doesn't own a home, and isn't married.
The typical mover leaving Florida is a millennial who makes nearly $48,000 a year, isn't married, and moved to Georgia or Texas.
A Business Insider analysis of individual-level data from the Census Bureau's 2022 ACS, assembled by the University of Minnesota's IPUMS program, found that movers leaving Florida were slightly younger, more often single, and employed at higher rates than movers to Florida.
While many are moving to Florida for its beaches, lack of state income tax, and business opportunities, many are getting priced out or seeking a quieter pace of life. Some former Floridians told BI that Florida lost its feeling of "paradise" as home insurance prices skyrocketed.
Slightly more millennials moved from Florida than Gen Z at 32% and 28% respectively. Boomers, who made up nearly 24% of movers to Florida, were only 17.8% of those leaving.
Though a greater percentage are employed, movers leaving Florida had an income of just $47,705 in 2022, compared to $55,115 for those moving in. Around 62% of those leaving were employed, 3.3% were unemployed, and just under 34% were not actively looking for work.
Around 37% of those leaving the Sunshine State own a home, much lower than the 49% of movers to Florida. Home values for those leaving are nearly $100,000 less than movers to Florida, coming in at around $407,000.
While 739,000 people moved to Florida between 2021 and 2022, nearly 490,000 left. Nearly 51,400 left Florida for Georgia, while 41,750 moved to Texas. North Carolina, California, and Tennessee were also popular destinations for those looking to leave the Sunshine State.
Among those moving out of Florida, 39.5% are married, while 43% are single or unmarried. Another 10% are divorced, while 4.8% are widowed. Movers to Florida are 10 percentage points more likely to be married.
Why people are leaving Florida
Many of the 490,000 total movers from Florida are middle-class residents working in positions such as teaching, nursing, and firefighting. While some Floridians have relocated from the coast to smaller communities further inland, others decided to move to a nearby state with a lower cost of living.
For instance, David, 58, said in October he was moving to Georgia after nearly 40 years in West Palm Beach. He said he was making the move due to rising property taxes, burdensome home insurance costs, and wealthy newcomers altering the fabric of his community.
"Their attitudes were so different from what everybody was used to; they were demanding people not familiar with the kind of calm lifestyle we were living," he previously told BI. "The population doubled with people different from others in our neighborhood."
Steve Prevesk, 63, also told BI in November he was gearing up to move away from Florida and move out west to California or Colorado. He moved to Florida in 2018 for a business opportunity after eight years in California, but the constant heat and "disingenuous" lifestyle took a toll on him. He said he would pay more in California to live a more comfortable, calmer lifestyle.
The Florida weather was a particular sticking point for him. "This is uninhabitable, you're walking to your car and you're soaking in sweat," Prevesk previously told BI, adding the heat has physically worn him down and has led others to retire early.
"I'm looking forward to the seasons again. I'm looking forward to getting out of the heat. And I'm looking forward to skiing and hiking in the mountain hills," he said. "That's my timeline and those are the places, but I just need to do some homework."
Kim, 68, who asked to just use her first name for privacy reasons, made a similar decision to move from Florida to another part of the country. After 10 years in Flagler County, she was fed up with how the peaceful community she knew had become much more commercialized as wealthier people had moved in. After her home flooded in 2017 and seeing the politics of her area begin to shift, she decided to move to a mobile home in a small town in northern Vermont, where the cost of living is lower despite much colder weather.
"It feels like we're all in this together to make this place better," Kim said. "It felt much safer. It felt much more warm. I haven't had arguments with anybody, and no one's said anything nasty to me."
Have you recently moved to a new state and want to share your story? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.