By Alisha Kim, Research Economist, Economic and Business Research Center
This is the second in a series of articles about mobility between states based on various socioeconomic characteristics. The first article, which examined state mobility by educational attainment, is available here.
One indicator of the attractiveness of a state’s quality of life, cost of living, and economic success is net migration. This analysis is based on the working age population of persons 15 years and older, taken from the 2019 1-year American Community Survey (ACS) data provides a measure of respondents’ mobility between states in the last year. Exhibit 1 illustrates net migration of this population in 2019, showing that Arizona had the third highest net migration behind only Florida and Texas. This is the same result as the population of persons 25 years and older when analyzing education-based categories in the last blog post. Thirty of the 50 states had positive net migration which indicates that more people moved into the state than moved out of the state.
Exhibit 1: Arizona Had the Third Highest Net Migration in 2019
As shown in the first post of this series which focused on education level, highly skilled workers are particularly sought after by large and small business in the state. Another way to identify highly skilled workers is by income level. Exhibit 2 illustrates net migration of persons 15 years and older with an annual income of $75,000 or higher. Arizona ranked sixth out of the 23 states with positive net migration in that category, which is the same rank Arizona had for migration of people with a bachelor’s degree or higher. This parallel result is not surprising because higher incomes are often correlated with higher levels of education.
Exhibit 2: Arizona Ranked Sixth in Attracting Migrants with Income over $75,000 per Year
Exhibit 3 below lists total net migration in 2019 by state for persons 15 years and older, as well as at designated income levels, sorted by total net migration of this population.
Exhibit 3: Net Migration by State and Income in 2019
