The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of people around the world in numerous ways. In the United States, one of the effects, despite these times of great uncertainty, is that thousands of people have moved out of their cities during the pandemic. Another is that more and more people have the flexibility to move because they are now working remotely.
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It’s no surprise that people fled states with higher populations and higher rates of COVID-19, particularly big urban centers. Cities like San Francisco and New York lost 59% and 68%, respectively, more people to moving out than they gained from those moving in. Los Angeles had an exodus of 51% more people, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., had 55% more people leave it than move into it. By the end of the year, the smaller cities they flocked to had up to three times as many people move in as they’d had move out.
Though a pandemic doesn’t seem like a great time to move, according to HireAHelper’s migration report, 15% of Americans who made one of these moves in the first six months of 2020 reported doing so because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For this piece, GOBankingRates used HireAHelper’s data on moves last year, along with April and December 2020 unemployment rates and other data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to chart the ten U.S. cities with the greatest rate of people moving in during the pandemic.
Take a closer look at where people are moving to right now.
Last updated: Mar. 16, 2021
