U-Haul’s annual report on where Americans are moving to is out, and Florida remains a top destination.
In the company’s list of top 25 growth metro areas for 2024, released Friday, seven of them were in the Sunshine State — Lakeland, Palm Bay, Jacksonville, Tampa, Sarasota, Fort Myers and Daytona Beach — and Ocala was named the top growth city outside a metro area.
Overall, Florida dropped a little in U-Haul’s rankings last year. Florida has been in the top four states for incoming trips since 2015, and was No. 1 in 2019. In 2023, Florida was second behind Texas. but last year we were fourth behind South Carolina, Texas and North Carolina.
The latest numbers: The Villages and Ocala are among the nation’s fastest growing metro areas
Each year, U-Haul tracks the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks arriving in a state or city compared with the net gain of trucks leaving that same state or city, to see where people are moving. The U-Haul Growth Index is compiled from over 2.5 million U-Haul truck, trailer and moving container rentals throughout the year.
“Florida continues to see people arriving from states throughout the Northeast. Some of the many reasons are our great weather, beautiful beaches and the amusement parks,” said Mario Martinez, U-Haul area district vice president, in an emailed release.
“We have no state income tax, which attracts a lot of people to Florida,” Martinez said, also pointing out the number of job opportunities and the younger generations moving down.
“There is so much to do here, and so many job opportunities once they finish school,” he said.
Which US metro areas saw the most growth in 2024?
According to U-Haul’s report, the top 25 metro areas in 2024 were:
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Brownsville & McAllen, TX
Which US cities outside the metro areas saw the most growth in 2024?
How much growth did Florida see in 2024 according to U-Haul?
After running second in the U-Haul Growth Index for three years, the Sunshine State dropped down to fourth for 2024. Florida was No. 1 in 2019.
In 2022, the U.S. Census found that over 22 million people were living in Florida and the state had seen a growth of nearly 2% within one year. Estimates now show the state’s population was slowly inching closer to the 23 million mark in 2023, adding over 300,000 new residents last year.
What were the top 10 most popular US states to move to in 2024?
These states had the largest influx of movers in 2024, according to U-Haul:
Which state lost the most movers in 2024?
For the fifth year in a row, the Golden State lost the most people. California was at the bottom of the list again, reflecting the trends of out-migration from other markets across the Northeast, the Midwest and the West Coast.
Joining California for most people moving out in the U-Haul Growth Index was Massachusets, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
How many people are moving to the South?
Since 2018, the South has experienced increasing year-to-year net domestic migration and is the fastest-growing and most populous region in the U.S. at 132.7 million people, according to the most recent data available.
According to the Census Bureau, the U.S. population reached 341,145,670 at midnight EST, on Jan. 1, 2025, an increase of 2,640,171 from Jan 1, 2024, the fastest annual growth seen since 2001. About 84% of that was attributed to international migration.
The South added more people than all other regions combined, the Census said in December, adding nearly 1.8 million people. Internal migration accounted for 1.1 million new people, while domestic migrations brought in another 411,004 residents. Florida saw the second-highest numeric gains behind Texas, with 467,347 added between 2023 and 2024.
“State-to-state transactions from the past year reaffirm customer tendencies that have been pronounced for some time,” said U-Haul International president John Taylor in a statement. “Migration to the Southeast and Southwest continues as families gauge their cost of living, job opportunities, quality of life and other factors that go into relocating to a new state. Out-migration remains prevalent for a number of markets across the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast — and particularly California.”
Contributing: Samantha Neely, USA TODAY Network-Florida
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Ocala, Florida was tops in one part of the 2024 U-Haul growth study.