With 2024 behind us U-Haul released their annual “Growth Index” of states people are moving to.
The list includes all fifty states, with Illinois amongst familiar states near the bottom (again). California ranked 50th with the largest net loss of people moving out. Remember this is just data from U-Haul in regards to people moving themselves to and from states, it’s not a comprehensive look at total migration.
Included in the bottom five states along with California are: Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. The Land of Lincoln sits at 6th worst, which is an improvement from recent years. In 2023 Illinois ranked 48th and in 2022, 2021 and 2020– Illinois was ranked 49th. In both 2019 and 2018 Illinois was last in growth (50th). So, there is improvement from then to now if only in percentages.
However, a deeper dive into the numbers over the last decade shows that there have been exactly ZERO years where U-Haul had more people moving TO Illinois than FROM…