ILLINOIS – New data from U-Haul’s 2023 Growth Index report reveals that Illinois was one of the top three states for outbound movers last year.

Only California and Massachusetts finished below Illinois in U-Haul’s 2023 Growth Index, which was released Tuesday morning.

According to U-Haul, movers preferred destinations in the southeast and southwest regions of the United States in 2023. Texas was deemed U-Haul’s most popular state for migration for the second straight year and sixth time in eight years.

The U-Haul Growth Index is calculated by comparing the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks arriving in a state or city against the net gain of U-Haul trucks departing that state or city for a specific calendar year. U-Haul says there are more than 2 million one-way U-Haul truck transactions each year within the United States and Canada.

“While one-way transactions in 2023 remained below the record-breaking levels we witnessed immediately following the pandemic, we continued to see many of the same geographical trends from U-Haul customers moving between states,” said John “J.T.” Taylor, U-Haul International president, via a news release.

As for Illinois, new Census reports estimate the state has lost around 33,000 residents since July 2022.

Nextdoor state Missouri had been deemed a popular state for U-Haul movers in 2022, but lost some leverage in 2023 and finished 28th.