MISSOURI – While Missouri’s population has held steady throughout the 2020s, the Show Me State has still seen a fair share of movers.
According to new new state-by-state migration data from the U.S. Census Bureau, released last week, more than 135,000 residents left Missouri in 2023.
Where exactly are former Missourians moving? These were the top five destinations for outbound-Missouri movers in 2023:
Kansas (18,573)
Illinois (14,982)
Texas (10,833)
Arkansas (8,714)
Florida (7,814)
Perhaps not too surprisingly, three of the top five destinations are neighboring states. The volume to Kansas and Illinois suggest that some are simply moving across state lines of the Kansas City and St. Louis metropolitan areas.
Meanwhile, the moves to Texas and Florida are a little bit further, but possibly represent movers’ ambitions for warmer climates year-round.
Oddly enough, there was one state that had no reported outbound moves from Missouri last year: New Hampshire. The next lowest total was Maine with only two people moving there from Missouri last year.
On the flip side, while tens of thousands are leaving, tens of thousands from other state have also found appeal to call Missouri home.
Missouri has increased its population by 31,000 residents since the start of the decade, per Census figures. With this in mind, it seems inbound moves are slightly outpacing outbound moves over the last few years.
State migration trends showed more people are leaving Kansas and Illinois for Missouri, nearly a combined 36,000 residents, compared to leaving Missouri for the two neighboring states.
