Are People Moving Out of the Midwest? An Expert's Perspective

People move to the Midwest for a variety of reasons, including work, education and family. Whether they settle in a small town or in a bustling metropolitan area, the region has many attractive opportunities. To understand the trends in motion for Midwestern states, we collected data from potential moving companies and analyzed their origins when they moved to a Midwestern state. The U.

S. Census Bureau defines the four regions of the Midwest as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. We included mobile data from all 12 Midwestern states in the study, as well as from major cities that had sufficient data to support reliable conclusions. Most of the possible moves come from populated states such as California, Florida, Texas and New York.

Although it is not the most significant contributor, Arizona is the only outlier, providing significantly more moving companies than would be expected due to the size of its population. Compared to all of Illinois, Chicago receives more from its moving agents from the Northeast and less from the Midwest and West. The proportion of people moving from New York to Chicago is significantly higher than that of the entire state. Most of those who move to Indiana come from the southern United States.

California and Florida are the biggest contributors of people moving to Indiana. Neighboring Illinois offers third highest number of moves. Although Californians once again prove to be the dominant group of people moving to this Midwestern state, Iowa also experiences several outliers. Illinois, Nebraska and Colorado provide equally notable amounts of potential moves.

Both Colorado and Nebraska bring significantly higher numbers of people than their smaller populations indicate. Although Californians once again prove to be the dominant group of people moving to this Midwestern state, Kansas also experiences several outliers. Missouri provides more moves than its population would indicate. Other nearby states such as Colorado and Texas also contribute a little to the group of people traveling to Kansas. California and Florida are the two main sources of moving in Minnesota. Arizona is the second largest and also an outlier, as the state provides more moving companies than its population would suggest.

Movers also come to Minnesota from Florida and nearby Illinois. Compared to all of Minnesota, Minneapolis receives fewer from its moving agents from the Midwest and West and more from the South and Northeast. This is partly due to the higher proportion of moving companies coming to Minneapolis from the big states of New York and, to a lesser extent, from Florida and Texas. Most people come to Michigan from California, followed by Illinois and Texas. Although it represents much less of the moving group, Iowa is a significant outlier, probably due to its proximity to Missouri. In addition, Michigan itself is an outlier because of the number of internal movers it provides which its population would suggest. Many people also move to Michigan from Texas and Illinois.

Compared to all of Missouri, St. Louis receives fewer of its movers from the Midwest and West and more from the Northeast and South. Louis receives a significantly higher proportion of people moving from Florida than the entire state. California makes up most of those who move to Nebraska. Nearby Midwestern states such as Missouri, Illinois and Colorado along with Texas serve as other notable sources of people moving to Nebraska. The sample of possible moves to North Dakota is quite small but you can still find some general trends.

Most of those who move to North Dakota come from the western United States. The most important source of people moving to North Dakota is Minnesota undoubtedly helped by its proximity to the state. Other notable sources include Michigan Arizona and Texas. The largest group moving to Ohio are Californians with Florida and Texas in second and third place respectively. People moving from Ohio are somewhat tall indicating remarkable internal migration both Colorado and Nevada are outliers in that they provide more movers than their population size suggests. The sample of possible moves to South Dakota is quite small but you can still find some general trends. Most of those who move to South Dakota come from the western United States South Dakota receives its largest groups of moving companies from Texas California Colorado and Utah. Californians make up the largest group of people moving to Wisconsin Illinois and Florida provide the second and third highest number of moving companies respectively. In general people who move to the Midwest come from the West and other Midwestern states although this region has more people moving than moving many who choose to settle here appreciate the lower cost of living lighter traffic and a more relaxed lifestyle in the Midwest. But what about our state and region -the Midwest? I've been thinking a lot lately about migration patterns I recently saw a story on “CBS Sunday Morning” that made me think even more about them People still move here every day I did an audit of a new member orientation class we held via Zoom at Mainstreet we call it JumpStart And we had more than 200 new real estate agents in the class Not everyone had moved to Chicago from out of state or even out of town But I...

Carissa Reagan
Carissa Reagan

Certified introvert. Freelance bacon buff. Proud explorer. Hardcore twitter geek. Professional social media specialist.

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