US Counties With the Lowest Departures per 100 People Staying
3,111 US counties ranked by departures per 100 people staying, from lowest to highest. First are Gregory County, SD (1.97), Smith County, KS (2.08) and Elk County, PA (2.14). The middle one of the 3,111 has 5.68.
What this measures
Tax filers who moved out, for every hundred who stayed put. Source: IRS county migration flows.
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 lowest counties
Every state, lowest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | per 100 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michigan | 1.69 |
| 2 | Ohio | 1.8 |
| 3 | Wisconsin | 1.86 |
| 4 | Texas | 2.02 |
| 5 | Minnesota | 2.03 |
| 6 | California | 2.04 |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | 2.17 |
| 8 | Indiana | 2.2 |
| 9 | Iowa | 2.35 |
| 10 | Maine | 2.38 |
| 11 | Illinois | 2.42 |
| 12 | Kentucky | 2.48 |
| 13 | Alabama | 2.48 |
| 14 | Nebraska | 2.53 |
| 15 | Missouri | 2.54 |
| 16 | West Virginia | 2.59 |
| 17 | Oklahoma | 2.6 |
| 18 | Louisiana | 2.64 |
| 19 | Arkansas | 2.66 |
| 20 | Massachusetts | 2.81 |
| 21 | New Jersey | 2.87 |
| 22 | Mississippi | 2.89 |
| 23 | New York | 2.95 |
| 24 | North Carolina | 2.95 |
| 25 | Connecticut | 2.96 |
| 26 | Utah | 2.97 |
| 27 | Tennessee | 2.99 |
| 28 | Georgia | 3.04 |
| 29 | Florida | 3.13 |
| 30 | South Carolina | 3.13 |
| 31 | Arizona | 3.28 |
| 32 | Kansas | 3.31 |
| 33 | Washington | 3.32 |
| 34 | New Hampshire | 3.34 |
| 35 | Oregon | 3.35 |
| 36 | Vermont | 3.35 |
| 37 | South Dakota | 3.4 |
| 38 | Maryland | 3.42 |
| 39 | Rhode Island | 3.44 |
| 40 | Montana | 3.52 |
| 41 | New Mexico | 3.57 |
| 42 | Idaho | 3.58 |
| 43 | Delaware | 3.67 |
| 44 | Virginia | 3.71 |
| 45 | North Dakota | 3.97 |
| 46 | Colorado | 4.14 |
| 47 | Nevada | 4.2 |
| 48 | Wyoming | 4.73 |
| 49 | Hawaii | 5 |
| 50 | Alaska | 5.61 |
| 51 | District of Columbia | 10.4 |
More on departures per 100 people staying
- US Counties With the Highest Departures per 100 People Staying
- Departures per 100 people staying by US county: map by year and what it goes with
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.