Where people are migrating says a lot about the underlying socio-economic factors that dominate a country. And for a country like USA, with more than 323 million people and an advanced economy that has a sweeping clout, these migrations can hold the key to understanding where the global economy is headed. Moving across the country is a tough decision for most people. It requires a compelling reason. For most people it is a job, or the lack thereof, that provides a significant push to make a cross-country move. The ever-changing job market, and how quickly states adapt to the turning tides, are some of the main things one can interpret from these migrations.
The interactive plot below shows how the population of individual US states has changed, relative to the county’s total population as a whole.
Interactive plot to explore these migrations can also be accessed at this link.
Surprising revelation from this interactive plot is the quite drastic progression from low migrations in the early part of the decade to the high migrations of 2016-17. Additionally, overall people have been consistently migrating to the west and the south-east. East and north-east have seen considerable decline for a large part of the last decade.
The plot also shows vividly the boom and bust of the oil rush in North Dakota. The rapidly reversing fortunes of Wyoming and Idaho in recent years stand out. More context can be gathered from this article in Washington post.
A lot of these highly contrasting migrations in the recent years also coincided with politically important times in the US. Players who better positioned themselves to ride the wake were benefitted, while others got left behind.