Americans are about half as likely to pack up and move today than they were in the mid-1980s.  A record low 9.8% of the U.S. population moved between 2018 and 2019, compared to 20.2% between 1984 and 1985. 

Despite the steep decline, the 4.7 million Americans who moved to a different state in the last year contributed to some significant population population shifts. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed population change from mid-2018 to mid-2019 to identify America’s fastest growing and shrinking states.

In addition to net migration, population change is also a product of natural change, or the number of people who were born in a state less the number of people who died. In the majority of states, natural change drove population change more than migration. 

The states that are growing the fastest tend to share some common characteristics that make them attractive to new residents and young families. One of them is a strong job market. Employment is of the most common reasons for Americans to move — and the fastest growing states are more likely to have added more jobs in the last year and have a low unemployment rate that the states with population declines. These are the cities that added the most jobs in the last five years. 

Click here to see how every state’s population changed in the last year