- In 2022, remote workers took the lead in terms of relocation with a higher share of them moving, as 10.5% moved within the same state and 4.3% moved to other states across the U.S.
- Florida and Texas are the most popular destinations for relocation, with about 740,000 and 660,000 people moving in, respectively
- Millennial remote workers are most eager to relocate as opposed to other generational groups (51%), with most of them moving out of California and New York
- California, New York and Pennsylvania see more remote workers leaving the state than moving in
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, changing jobs often implied that people had to relocate to be close to the company’s office. However, with remote work proving to be a better and safer alternative during the pandemic and remaining a popular option for companies and employees today, moving to another location for work has become unnecessary. While work may not be the main reason people choose to relocate today, there are still many reasons for which someone would want to move to another place, whether within or out of state.
To get an idea of the impact remote work might have on the migration pattern of workers, we looked at data from the IPUMS USA specifically remote versus onsite workers. Here is what we found.
Remote Workers are More Likely to Move Out of State than Onsite Workers
In 2022, remote workers embraced relocating, either within the same state or out of state, with 10.5% moving within the same state and 4.3% moving to other states. These percentages are higher than those for onsite workers (2.5%) and even the population overall (2.5%). In fact, 1 in 8 people who relocated to another state were remote workers.
Up until 2019, on-site workers moved within the same state more than remote workers, after which they took over the relocation trend, with there being at least 2 percentage points more remote workers than on-site moving. As far as out-of-state relocation goes, there is a larger share of remote workers than that of on-site workers who were seen embracing this move over the last 15 years.
Some of the main reasons people tend to move, aside from work, include lower cost of living, better quality of life, family, tax advantages and personal preferences, to name a few.
Florida and Texas are Popular Destinations for Relocation
When looking at the total number of remote and on-site workers leaving from and moving into a certain state, Florida and Texas come up as the most popular state destinations. And not just for workers, but Americans in general show a certain preference towards these two states when choosing to move.
In fact, in Florida, out of the roughly 740,000 people who moved to the state in 2022, 107,000 were remote workers and 250,000 were on-site workers. In Texas, out of the total inflow of roughly 660,000 people, about 95,000 were remote workers while 270,000 were on-site workers.
The majority of remote workers moving to Florida came from New York, about 13,000, and from those moving to Texas, about 15,000 were from California. The same state-to-state migration pattern can be seen for on-site workers as well, with roughly 26,000 going to Florida from New York and 38,000 from California to Texas.
More Than 50% of Remote Workers Moving are Millennials
Depending on the various points in time people are at in their lives, they may choose to relocate or remain in the area they have been living in. As such, it’s no surprise that millennials are the most eager generational group to embrace relocation. With most of them ranging between being young adults somewhat fresh in the job market and being near the middle of their careers and having their own families, it’s only natural that moving is part of this dynamic time in people’s lives. 54% of the people who relocated within the same state were millennials.
Gen X and Gen Z followed with 20% and 18%, respectively, embracing the moving trend. Boomers and the Silent Generation are least likely to move, with these two age groups together representing less than 10% of the moving population. Of those choosing to move out of state, Millennials made up 51% of the population, with Gen X representing 21% and Gen Z 18%.
Most Remote Working Millenials Move from California and New York to Other States
When looking at the specific migration of millennials, most of them choose to leave either California or New York in favor of Texas and Florida. About 9,000 and 4,000 millennials moved from California to Texas and Florida, respectively, and 6,000 and 4,500 former New York millennials chose Florida and Texas. Also, a significant number, of roughly 7,000 millennials moved from New York to New Jersey.
Gen X Movers in Strong Favor of Florida
The majority of Gen X movers made their way to Florida from various states including New York, Virginia, Texas, California and Illinois. While there are also Gen X remote workers moving from Florida to other states, the state still gained more than 18,000 new Gex Xs. This is even higher than the number of remote-working Millennials the state gained, as it barely surpassed 15,000.
Gen Zs Have no Preferred States When Moving
The largest group of Gen Zs to move to another state were those from California going to New York, about 2,800. Another roughly 2,000 moved from Illinois to Indiana. Missouri, Texas, Virginia, California, Michigan and New York were popular destination states for many Gen Zs. In fact, out of the three generational groups, Gen Z remote workers were the least in favor of moving to Florida, as more people in this age group left the state rather than moved in.
California, New York and Pennsylvania Among the Least Favorite States for Remote Workers Relocating
While some people are more drawn to certain states when they choose to move, there are also some least favorite states that people would rather move out of than move into. When looking at the net difference between remote workers who moved in versus those who moved out of a certain state, California, New York and Pennsylvania come in as the top three least popular states for relocating. In fact, in California, about 38,000 more remote workers moved out than came in, about 28,000 did the same in New York and about 14,000 more left the state of Pennsylvania. Massachusetts is also on the list with about 12,500 more remote workers choosing to leave the state and Illinois falls in fifth as the least favorite with about 10,500 more remote workers moving out than those moving in.
There are also four states which had less than 2,000 remote workers moving in in the last year. North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota and Wyoming are some of the states that don’t see many remote workers moving in but have roughly 1,800 remote workers or more leaving the state in favor of others.
Conclusion
Regardless of one’s reason for relocating, remote workers tend to be more eager to do so, probably because of the flexibility that their job offers them, thus allowing them to often relocate for reasons other than work. Millennials are also a generation that embraces this trend, as the chances of opportunities arising during this age gap are high and their drive for the better is also at its highest. So, while for many the reason for moving may not be strictly job-related, having access to coworking spaces may be an important factor when relocating, as the need for working from an office and having some stability when it comes to work is extremely important.
Methodology
- The analysis is based on the questions about moving in the prior year and the place of residence one year ago from IPUMS USA (Steven Ruggles, Sarah Flood, Matthew Sobek, Daniel Backman, Annie Chen, Grace Cooper, Stephanie Richards, Renae Rogers, and Megan Schouweiler. IPUMS USA: Version 14.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2023. https://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V14.0).
- Data only refers to state-to-state movements.
- The target population is remote workers.
- The share of remote and on-site workers for 2020 is not available for comparison due to unreliable data.
Yardi Kube is an all-in-one coworking space management platform that helps businesses manage all aspects of flexible workspaces, from meeting room and space booking to lead generation, payment processing and more. For more information, click below to schedule a demo.