SALT LAKE CITY — Utah remains one of the more popular moving destinations, not only in federal data but from another interesting migration data source.
U-Haul, the large moving truck, trailer and storage rental company, ranked Utah as the ninth most popular moving destination among customers in 2024, according to its annual report on moving trends released Thursday. It jumped up four spots from the company’s previous report, as people continued to move South and West last year.
The data is based on over 2.5 million one-way truck, trailer and moving container transactions throughout the year.
South Carolina topped U-Haul’s list for the first time in 2024, leaping past Texas as the South and West nearly swept the Top 10. Texas placed second, continuing a run of remaining in the top two that began in 2016. North Carolina, Florida and Tennessee rounded out the top five. Arizona, at No. 6, led the West, followed by Washington, Utah and Idaho. Indiana (No. 8) was the only Top 10 state outside of the two regions.
“State-to-state transactions from the past year reaffirm customer tendencies that have been pronounced for some time. Migration to the Southeast and Southwest continues as families gauge their cost of living, job opportunities, quality of life and other factors that go into relocating to a new state,” said John Taylor, international president of U-Haul, in a statement.
Outmigration, Taylor added, remained “prevalent” across the Northeast and Midwest, along with one major Western outlier. California — for the fifth year in a row — placed last in growth on the list, followed by Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
Oklahoma had the biggest jump among states, moving up 30 spots to No. 11. Colorado suffered the largest drop in interest, falling from ninth to 40th.
Of course, there are limitations.
It’s only based on one-way purchases among U-Haul customers. The company adds that its rankings “may not correlate directly to population or economic growth,” either. However, it believes the index is still “an effective gauge” when it comes to migration patterns.
The U-Haul index also has many similarities with Census Bureau population estimates, which are based on birth, death and a wide range of other datasets to estimate populations of every state.
The agency agrees that the South and West continue to anchor migration trends, but it estimates that Texas led the nation in growth last year by bringing in over 500,000 new residents. Florida, California, North Carolina and New York rounded out its top five in numeric growth.
South Carolina, the U-Haul champion, placed 10th on the Census Bureau list. Utah (1.8%) landed outside of the top 10 in total growth, but it tied Texas for third in percentage growth among states, territories and districts.
Census Bureau officials found that international migration, especially a boom in humanitarian migrants, spurred a large chunk of the growth.
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