Which states move the most? 2024 Census data for all 50 states

Every time a customer moves, an address in somebody's database stops being true. The order history still says they live on Maple Street. The next parcel, renewal notice or catalog goes there anyway.

So it's worth knowing how often that happens, and where. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey asks people where they lived a year ago. Here's what the 2024 answers say, state by state.

What percentage of Americans move each year?

11.8% of people in the US lived at a different address in 2024 than a year earlier. That's about 39.6 million people, down slightly from 12.1% in 2023.

Most of those moves are short:

Half of all movers stayed in their county, and fewer than 1 in 5 crossed a state line. For address data, that's the part people miss. The typical move isn't to another state. It's across town, to a new street, often in the same city and sometimes the same ZIP code.

Which states have the highest mover rates?

Washington, DC is in a class of its own: 19.9% of residents moved in 2024. It's a single city, though, so it isn't a fair comparison with a whole state.

Among the 50 states, nine sit in a top group at around 14%: Alaska (14.8%), Colorado (14.2%), North Dakota (14.1%), Oklahoma (14.1%), Nevada (14.0%), Texas (13.9%), Arizona (13.8%), Washington (13.7%) and Idaho (13.6%). The differences inside that group are within the survey's margin of error, so I wouldn't crown a single winner. Florida and Utah are next at 13.3%.

All nine are well above the national rate. In those states, roughly 1 in 7 residents lived somewhere else a year earlier.

Which states have the lowest mover rates?

New Jersey has the lowest rate in the country at 8.8%, followed by New York at 9.3%. Both are clearly below every other state.

After them comes a cluster at around 10%: West Virginia (10.0%), Pennsylvania (10.1%), New Hampshire and Illinois (10.2%), Maine (10.3%), and California and Connecticut (10.4%). Those are close enough that the exact order doesn't mean much.

Which states do people move to from other states?

Looking only at people who came from another state, the order changes.

As a share of residents, DC leads again (7.7%). Then come Wyoming (4.4%), Alaska (4.1%), Nevada (4.0%), Vermont (3.8%), Hawaii (3.8%) and Idaho (3.7%), roughly level with each other. California is the lowest at 1.0%.

By headcount, Florida (about 574,000 people) and Texas (about 556,000) took in the most new residents from other states, and they're statistically tied. California, North Carolina and New York follow.

Texas is the interesting one. It's in the top group for moves overall, yet only 1.8% of its residents came from another state, which puts it 44th. Most Texas moves happen inside Texas. That's the pattern to plan for: most stale addresses belong to customers who moved locally, not to people who left the state.

Mover rate by state, 2024

Share of residents aged 1 and over who lived at a different address a year earlier, with the 90% margin of error, and the share who lived in a different state.

States are ordered by unrounded rates, so two states showing the same percentage can sit on different rows.

What this means for the addresses in your customer list

A 14% mover rate doesn't mean 14% of your addresses broke last year. The survey counts people, and one household move can cover several of them. But the direction is clear: if your customers are concentrated in Colorado, Texas or Arizona, your address list ages faster than one weighted toward New Jersey or Pennsylvania.

Three things follow from that.

1. Don't trust a saved address forever. Check it again when a returning customer checks out, especially if the last order was more than a year ago. A one-click "is this still right?" costs less than an address correction fee.
2. Expect local moves. Because half of movers stay in their county, a stale address often looks plausible: right city, right state, maybe even the right ZIP. Address validation tells you whether an address exists and can receive mail. It can't tell you whether your customer still lives there. For mailers, that's what the USPS change-of-address service (NCOALink) is for; there's more on the difference in our CASS explainer.
3. Clean the list before it matters. Run a batch check on your customer file before peak season or a big mailing, and fix or flag what comes back.

If you ship to homes, the retail and logistics pages show where the check fits in an order flow.

How we ran the numbers

The figures are from the US Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, table DP02 ("Residence 1 year ago"), for the population aged 1 and over. "Moved" means the person lived in a different house 12 months before the survey. The ranking is our own; the Census Bureau doesn't publish one.

Every number is a survey estimate with a margin of error at 90% confidence. Where two states' ranges overlap, treat them as tied. We'll update this post when the 2025 estimates come out.

Where DQVerify fits

DQVerify address validation checks US addresses with USPS CASS Certified software supplied by a USPS licensee, plus 240+ countries and territories. Use it at checkout through the API, or upload your customer list as a CSV and get a result on every row. The same key checks email and phone.

You get 100 free credits for 14 days with no credit card, enough to test a sample of customers from your highest-move states. Pricing starts at $700 for 20,000 credits, with no subscription.