Surprisingly, California Didn’t Make The Top Out-Bound Or In-Bound States Lists … But, You Might Be Surprised By Which Did

UPDATE: Chief Executive Magazine, Best & Worst States for Business (May 2014) — In the 10th annual survey of CEOs, over 500 CEOs across the U.S. graded states with which they were familiar on a variety of measures, including the tax and regulatory regime, the quality of the workforce and the quality of the living environment. Texas continues its 10-year historical position as the best state overall.

Where is everyone going and why? In its recently-published article titled The States People Are Fleeing in 2014, Forbes discusses United Van Lines’ — the big St. Louis-based moving company — 37th Annual Migration Study of where Americans are moving. United Van Lines analyzed “a total of 125,000 moves across the 48 continental states and the District of Columbia in 2013 and came up with a picture of migration patterns across the U.S.”

Forbes’ article explains that, “[a]ccording to Professor Michael Stoll, chair of the Department of Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a consultant to United Van Lines who studies American migration, the moves reflect long-term shifts in the U.S. economy and the hit to employment in many states resulting from the slow recovery.” Another explanation given is Americans’ desire to leave the frigid states in the north for warmer climates. Reportedly, “[o]ver the last 20-30 years there has been a general shift of the population from the Midwest and Northeast to the South and West, which we think of as a move from the frost belt to the sun belt.” Not surprisingly, another reason given is the high cost of living, for example, in New York. Americans apparently are being drawn to other states by “[b]usiness incentives, industrial growth, and relatively lower costs of living,” according to Professor Stoll.

According to the Study, the top out-bound states are New Jersey, Illinois, New York, West Virginia, Connecticut, Utah, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and New Mexico, and the top in-bound states are Oregon, South Carolina, North Carolina, District of Columbia, South Dakota, Nevada, Texas, and Colorado.

Additional Resources: Forbes; United Van Lines; Atlanta Construction on the Rise