Americans on the Move, Looking for Less Populated and Greener Pastures Florida, with its sunshine, warmth, and no individual state income tax, is a big draw, as demonstrated by the annual study of interstate migration by United Van Lines, the nation's largest moving company.

By The Epoch Times Edited by Charles Muselli

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

"Vote with your feet," said President Ronald Reagan in 1982.

Forty years later, many Americans are still heeding his advice and moving to what they see as greener pastures.

Florida, with its sunshine, warmth, and no individual state income tax, is a big draw, as demonstrated by the annual study of interstate migration by United Van Lines, the nation's largest moving company.

United Van Lines has been conducting the study since 1977. It is based on interstate household moves handled by United in the lower 48 states, plus Washington D.C. The company also surveys customers concerning the motivations and circumstances that have influenced their moves.

Company spokesperson Eily Cummings told The Epoch Times that the company moved just over 125,000 customers between states in 2021.

Of those, 21,560 responded to the survey. "These are weighty and statistically significant numbers. They confirmed some recent trends, but also contained some surprises," Cummings said.

Of all the interstate moves performed by the moving giant in Florida in 2021, 62 percent were people moving into the state, and 38 percent were people moving out.

The Florida move-in to move-out ratio placed the Sunshine State in the top five in the nation, behind Vermont (74 to 26), South Dakota (69 to 31), South Carolina (63 to 37), and West Virginia (63 to 37).

According to the study, Tennessee posted a move-in to move-out ratio of 62 to 38 percent, and the ratio for Texas was 54 to 46 percent.

Cummings said, "This was the first time in the 45-year history of our study that West Virginia ranked so high. This seems to be part of a trend of Americans moving from areas of high population density to areas of lower population density.

"Six of the top 10 states in terms of move-ins have a population density of less than 100 people per square mile. Also, people are moving into metropolitan and even rural areas rather than into densely populated urban centers.

"This trend may be related to the pandemic. We believe the increase in moves to the less crowded states may also be due to the ability of many people to work remotely."

According to the study, the six states with the nation's worst move-out numbers are New Jersey (71 percent moving out), Illinois (67 percent), New York (63 percent), Connecticut (60 percent), California (59 percent), and Michigan (58 percent moving out).

The survey showed that 33 percent of customers responding to the survey moved across state lines for a new job or a job transfer. The figure was 60 percent in the 2015 survey.

Cummings said, "Taking a new job was the reason given by 64 percent of our responding customers for moving into Washington D.C. We believe this was largely because of the change of administrations after the 2020 election."

The survey revealed a new trend that found 32 percent of all responding customers moved across state lines to be closer to family.

"Historically, moving closer to family has not been one of our responses. It seems to have come to the fore because of the pandemic. Forty-eight percent of the responding customers we moved into Michigan, 47 percent in New Jersey, 44 percent in Ohio, and 43 percent in Illinois, said they moved there to be close to family members."

Cummings went on to say, "We've seen a ton of movement out of New Jersey and New York to Florida and the Carolinas. Twenty-four percent of those leaving New Jersey went to Florida. Twenty-one percent of our customers who left New York in 2021 moved to Florida."

By Steven Kovac

Steven Kovac is an Epoch Times reporter who covers the state of Michigan. He is a former small businessman, local elected official, and conservative political activist. He is an ordained minister of the Gospel. Steven and his wife of 32 years have two grown daughters. He can be reached at steven.kovac@epochtimes.us

The Epoch Times, founded in 2000, is headquartered in Manhattan, New York, with a mission to provide independent and accurate information free of political bias or corporate influence. The organization was established in response to censorship within China and a lack of global awareness regarding the Chinese regime's repression of the spiritual practice Falun Gong.

The Epoch Times is a widely read newspaper that is distributed in 33 countries and is available in 21 languages. The publication has been critical in providing balanced and detailed reporting on major global events such as the 2003 SARS pandemic and the 2008 financial crisis. Notably, the organization has played a key role in exposing corruption inside China.

Aside from its human rights coverage, The Epoch Times has made significant contributions in a variety of fields. It has received praise for its in-depth analysis and expert perspectives on business, the economy and U.S. politics. The newspaper has also received praise for its broad coverage of these topics.

A series of editorials titled "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party" appeared in The Epoch Times in 2004. It asserts that freedom and prosperity in China can only be achieved by eliminating the Communist Party, which violated China's cultural and spiritual values. In addition, the organization led the Tuidang movement, which resulted in over 400 million Chinese citizens quitting the Communist Party. In spite of this, 90% of websites referring to the "Nine Commentaries" were blocked by the Chinese regime.

The Epoch Times has been at the forefront of investigating high-level corruption cases within the Chinese regime, with its reporters taking significant risks to uncover these stories. The organization has received several awards for its investigative journalism.

The organization has received several awards for its investigative journalism. For more, visit www.theepochtimes.com.

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