Moving Trends: Where Illinois Ranks

ILLINOIS — Are more people moving into or out of Illinois? Some insight comes from U-Haul, the moving truck company that tracks its trips into and out of every state every year.

U-Haul migration trends released this month ranked the 50 states by the number of its trucks entering state borders in 2020. Illinois ranks 49th on the list, which should be no surprise.

The Land of Lincoln has lost more residents in the last decade than all but one other state, and has had a net loss of residents every year for the last seven.

Data for the ranking comes from U-Haul’s more than 2 million one-way rentals in 2020, according to a news release from the company.

But this year's ranking is actually an improvement. Last year, Illinois was ranked No. 50 — dead last. Illinois has been 49th or 50th since 2015, when U-Haul began ranking states based on annual net gain

It’s the first time since 2015 that neither Texas nor Florida found itself at the top of U-Haul’s annual list. Tennessee held the top spot for migration growth in 2020, having jumped from No. 12 on the 2019 list.

A U-Haul representative cites the state’s friendly business environment and lack of income tax for the rapid growth in people moving to the Volunteer State.

“There are plenty of jobs. People and companies are taking note,” Jeff Porter, U-Haul Company of Nashville president, said in a statement. “Places like Nashville, Murfreesboro and Clarksville are attracting tons of new residents. Nashville is ever-growing, and even the era of COVID-19 isn’t slowing that.”

U-Haul said the number of one-way trucks into Tennessee jumped by 12 percent in 2020 as departures rose only 9 percent.

At the bottom of the company’s migration growth list from 2020 is California, which in 2020 supplanted Illinois as the state with the greatest net loss of U-Haul trucks.