Moving company U-Haul has published its annual report of the fastest-growing states, and Illinois finds itself near the bottom of the list.
According to the company, Illinois has the third-worst “growth rate” of any state in the country.
That number is calculated by determining the net gain or loss of “one-way equipment,” including trucks and trailers, from customers who are moving to different states, the company says in a press release.
Only California and Massachusetts ranked lower in 2023, U-Haul says. New Jersey and Michigan rounded out the bottom five.
The top states meanwhile were once again Texas and Florida, with North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas also making the top-five.
Those numbers tell a similar story to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which estimated that Illinois was one of eight states in the country to see its population decrease in 2023.
According to data, Illinois lost 0.26% of its population, and while it was a much-slower rate of decline than the state saw in previous years, Illinois has still lost 2% of its population since the 2020 Census, dropping to just over 12.5 million residents.
Only New York, Louisiana and Hawaii lost a greater percentage of their residents between 2022 and 2023, according to the bureau.
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