Recently, residents of high-tax states such as California, New York, Illinois, and New Jersey have been on the move. Specifically, they’ve been flocking to low-tax destinations such as Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Arizona, and Tennessee.
Between April 1, 2020, and June 30, 2023, high-tax states lost net 2.8 million residents to low-tax states. That’s more people than could be seated in all 30 NFL stadiums and 29 NBA arenas combined.
Zero-income tax Florida and Texas were the top two destinations for interstate movers, gaining 819,000 and 656,000 net residents respectively. Americans in the northeastern U.S. and the upper Midwest poured into Florida, while Texas was the destination of choice for many people living west of the Mississippi.
North Carolina (310,000), South Carolina (248,000), Arizona (218,000), and Tennessee (207,000) ranked third through sixth in net population gain from interstate migration. Each of them is a low-tax state (except South Carolina, which stands in the middle of the pack). Tennessee, like Florida and Texas, is one of the seven states with zero income tax.
It’s no coincidence that former Californians led the exodus out of high-tax states. California has the highest state income tax rate in the country at 13.3%, and it lost 1.2 million residents to interstate migration in a little more than three years.
Incredibly, California was the leading source of net domestic migration into every state within 1,000 miles of either Los Angeles or San Francisco.
