Oct 7, 2024 - News

Where Arizonans are moving

Jessica Boehm,
Jeremy Duda

A grid of six U.S. maps showing the share of out-of-state movers who moved from a different state, by county. The data shown is from the 2018-2022 five-year state-to-county migration flow estimates. The six states shown are those with the greatest number of movers leaving the state. They include California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Texas and Virginia. Counties bordering their home state were the most popular moving destinations. — Data: U.S. Census Bureau; Map: Jared Whalen/Axios

"Don't California my Arizona" is a popular refrain here, but when people move out of the Grand Canyon State, many are trying to do the opposite.

Why it matters: While moving overall is at an all-time low, there's been an uptick in state-to-state migration.

The big picture: California is the top destination for Arizonans who move out of state, with 28,556 headed there from 2018-2022, per the U.S. Census Bureau. The next most popular destinations for Arizonans were:

Texas (20,261 people)
Washington state (10,065)
Colorado (9,732)
Florida (7,552)

Zoom in: When it comes to individual counties, the top destination was San Diego County, California, where 5,453 Arizonans moved.

Next was Las Vegas' Clark County (5,346 people), Los Angeles County (4,707), Seattle's King County (3,184) and California's Orange County (2,851).

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Where Arizonans are moving

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