Millions of Americans relocated in 2020 and many due to the COVID-19 pandemic. College students and young adults moved home, and a new breed of remote working Americans no longer tied down to a long commute sought new places to call home.
Idaho ranked as the nation’s leader for inbound moves—that is, people moving in—while New York had the greatest outbound moves—people leaving the state, according to the 2020 Atlas Van Lines Migrations Patterns Study. The annual study tracked nearly 65,000 interstate and cross-border household relocations from Jan. 1, 2020, to Dec. 11, 2020.
The following states had the highest inbound moves last year, according to the study:
- Idaho (66.4 percent)
- North Carolina (64.6 percent)
- Maine (62.4 percent)
- New Hampshire (61.6 percent)
- Alabama (60.8 percent)
- District of Columbia (60.2 percent)
- New Mexico (60.0 percent)
- Nevada (59.8 percent)
- Alaska (58.6 percent)
- Kentucky (57.7 percent)
These states had the highest percentage of outbound moves:
- New York (66.4 percent)
- Illinois (62.5 percent)
- New Jersey (60.6 percent)
- Louisiana (60.1 percent)
- West Virginia (59.8 percent)
- Nebraska (58.3 percent)
- Minnesota (57.9 percent)
- Indiana (57.8 percent)
- California (57.1 percent)
- Iowa (56.1 percent)
View an interactive map broken down by state at Alasvanlines.com.
Source: Atlas Vans
