Moving Companies: Where Illinois Ranks In Residents Looking To Go

It really doesn't matter who's keeping the statistics, there's no getting around the fact that Illinois has been losing residents to other states for the last 10 straight years. As a matter of fact, only West Virginia has a longer streak of population loss, and at 11 years, they're only leading us by one year.

The biggest reason for leaving Illinois for most of the people who've departed can be boiled down to a single word: Taxes.

Illinois' tax environment hasn't changed for the better (some would say it's gotten worse, if anything), but the amount of Illinois residents who are leaving the state has slowed down...somewhat.

Before We Get To The Moving Companies And Their Statistics On Illinoisans Leaving The State, Would You Care To Guess The 3 States Where Most People Go When They Decide To Leave Illinois?

I'm sorry to have to tell you that it's not just warmth and sunshine that departing Illinoisans are looking for. It certainly doesn't hurt, since the number-one destination for Illinois' movers with 35,000 former Illinoisans moving there in the last 12 months is...Florida.

• But, when Illinoisans decide to not be Illinoisans anymore, but don't want to move to Florida, they're going to Indiana. In 2022, Indiana absorbed 31,000 Illinois residents who were looking to make a fresh start.
• For the 3rd state Illinoisans are fleeing to, look north. Wisconsin took 27,300 Illinois residents off our hands in 2022...and probably closed the deal by addicting them to cheese curds and cheddar hats. Ruthless.
• About 25 thousand former Illinoisans headed for California, and another 25,000 went to Texas. Missouri took 20,000 and Iowa grabbed up 16,500. Kentucky wound up with around 6,000.

Both United Van Lines And U-Haul Recently Released Their Takes On Who Is Moving From Where In This Country, And They Differ A Bit When It Comes To People Leaving Illinois

The United Van Lines survey has Illinois ranked at number two in states losing residents behind only New Jersey, according to IllinoisPolicy.org:

The No. 1 reason United Van Lines was given for people leaving Illinois was jobs, with more than one-quarter of respondents listing it as a primary reason ahead of family and retirement. Over half of outbound Illinoisans in the survey made $150,000 or more. Wealthier residents have the fewest barriers to moving.

U-Haul’s 2023 Growth Index report, released on Tuesday of this week has Illinois as the number-three state for outbound migration, behind California and Massachusetts.

TheCenterSquare.com:

U-Haul’s 2023 Growth Index report is calculated by comparing the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks arriving in a state against the net gain of trucks departing that state. The latest report is more proof that people continue to flee the Land of Lincoln. Illinois has lost 549,000 people in the past decade when adding up the annual population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.