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If you simply follow the moving trucks, it appears more people moved out of California than moved to the Golden State again last year.

U-Haul has released a list of the Top Growth States of 2023, and for the fourth year in a row, California showed the largest net loss of one-way movers.

U-Haul compiled the data from more than 2.5 million one-way truck, trailer and portable container rentals in the U.S. and Canada.

The company says Texas saw the largest net increase of movers for a third straight year, followed by Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Idaho, Washington, Arizona, Colorado and Virginia round out the top 10.

While U-Haul isn’t an official source, its data largely aligns with government figures that also show California has seen an exodus of residents in recent years.

Between July 2021 and July 2022, California lost a net of 407,000 residents to other states, according to the Census Bureau. The state’s finance department shows California has been losing residents to other states for over two decades.

California net migration
A chart showing net migration in California. (Public Policy Institute of California)

With over 39 million residents, California remains the most populous state in the nation and the reasons why people move out -or move in- vary from person to person and family to family.

A policy report from Stanford University’s Institute for Economic Policy Research states that “California’s high cost of living has spurred many businesses and residents to leave the state, posing serious consequences for the state’s job market and fiscal outlook.”

Politics and environmental policies were also factors, the institute said.