North Carolina has emerged as a new magnet for Americans on the move, even as Florida and Texas—long the headline growth states—see different parts of their in-migration story cool, according to new U.S. Census Bureau figures released this past week. The latest snapshot finds a shift in domestic migration patterns, alongside continued debate among demographers over how precisely migration can be measured from year to year.
In the Census Bureau’s accounting of moves within the United States, North Carolina attracted 84,000 more new residents from other parts of the country last year than any other state. Texas, the prior leader in the early 2020s ranking, saw its domestic inflow slow, while South Carolina ranked near the top on the number of domestic migrants, despite lower domestic gains than North Carolina.
The overall growth picture also moved. South Carolina had the highest overall growth rate last year at 1.5%, a mark that had belonged to Florida in 2024 and Florida again in the two years before that. The figures reflect not only domestic migration but also the mix of international migration and natural change from births and deaths, depending on the state.
Florida’s in-migration story showed the biggest relative cooling. The state dropped to No. 8 for state-to-state migration, as more U.S. residents preferred to move elsewhere, including Alabama. The reported change is visible in personal decisions like those of Sabrina Morley and Steven Devereaux, a couple who sold their Tampa-area home and moved outside Valencia, Spain, saying they had become wary of Florida’s costs and other concerns as they planned to have children.
Devereaux told the Associated Press that he had “a pretty good childhood,” but that he did not think his family would give their child the same quality of life because of “the cost of living, food quality, and guns have become more prevalent.” Morley and Devereaux said they expected a daughter in the spring, and framed the move as a way to give future children what they called a better quality of life.
North Carolina state demographer Michael Cline attributed the state’s growth to a combination of high-paying jobs in banking and tech, along with topographical diversity and the presence of smaller big cities than in Florida and Texas. Cline said North Carolina was attracting younger people because it offers “so many nice areas in North Carolina — the mountains and beaches and lakes in between,” and that the state “cities are not huge,” which he said may appeal to people who decide they can work from anywhere.
Demographers also linked the changes to broader political and economic effects that can follow from where population growth happens. The article reported that population growth can bring more taxpayers, economic dynamism, and demand for goods and services, and can signal potential shifts in political landscape ahead of the 2030 census as states gain or lose clout in Congress and the Electoral College.
For the states that grew fastest overall, the mix differed. Despite domestic migration slowing, Texas still had the highest overall growth in the nation last year at 391,000 people, while Florida added 196,000 overall. The Census Bureau figures described Florida’s overall growth as driven by international migration, and Texas’ growth as driven by international migration and births outpacing deaths—patterns that continued after pandemic-era remote-work boosts encouraged moves to both states.
William Frey, a demographer at Brookings, said the sharp domestic migrations observed during the pandemic have “petered out, especially for Florida, at the same time that immigration is being diminished.” Frey’s remark pointed to how fewer newcomers from abroad could reshape the drivers of state and national growth in the years ahead.
The article also emphasized that migration figures are among the hardest variables to measure and can fluctuate. It reported that the Census Bureau uses data from the IRS and its American Community Survey, noting that ACS data lag by a year and require projections. It also reported that the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research uses an alternative method based on electrical customer data, and that researchers said they were not fully convinced by some year-to-year domestic migration shifts, including why Florida’s domestic migration declined sharply between 2022 and 2025.
In that context, research demographer Richard Doty said there were “no definitive explanations” for why domestic migration to Florida dropped from almost 319,000 people in 2022 to 22,500 in 2025, and he pointed to possible factors such as housing costs, hurricanes, and return-to-office employer mandates. Doty said housing costs in particular were driving young people and retirees to other states, and added that “insurance is higher in Florida than most other states.” In an email response included in the report, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary, Molly Best, said Florida saw a significant influx of new residents during the pandemic and that it remains a top-ranked place to live, according to the report.
On Texas migration drivers, the article reported that Texas state demographer Lloyd Potter said conditions outside the state also influence inflows. Potter told the Associated Press that if jobs are plentiful, living is affordable, and the overall quality of life is good, people would be “less likely to move for an opportunity outside that community.”
The report also linked the near-term outlook to immigration policy and national demographic trends. It said the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has contributed to a significant reduction in migration from abroad, which had been the prime driver of growth in most states for the first half of this decade, and cited the Congressional Budget Office saying that without immigration growth the U.S. population will start shrinking in five years as deaths outpace births.