PHOENIX, Ariz. — Missouri is the No. 39 growth state in America and Illinois is 49th out of the 50 states, according to 2021 transactional data compiled for the annual U-Haul® Growth Index.
People coming to Missouri in one-way U-Haul trucks increased almost nine percent year-over-year, while departures rose more than 13 percent from 2020 as overall moving traffic surged.
Arriving customers accounted for 49.8 percent of all one-way U-Haul traffic in Missouri during 2021 to rank it 39th for netting do-it-yourself movers. Missouri, which climbed as high as No. 5 on the U-Haul Growth Index back in 2016, slipped 32 spots from its No. 7 ranking in 2020.
People coming to Illinois in one-way U-Haul trucks increased more than 18 percent year-over-year, while departures also increased over 18 percent from 2020 as overall moving traffic spiked.
Arriving customers accounted for 49.2 percent of all one-way U-Haul traffic in Illinois during 2021 to rank it 49th for netting do-it-yourself movers. Illinois has held down the 49th or 50th spot on the U-Haul Growth Index each year since 2015.
Growth states are calculated by the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks entering a state versus leaving that state in a calendar year. Migration trends data is compiled from well over 2 million one-way U-Haul truck customer transactions that occur annually.
U-Haul customers made Texas the No. 1 growth state of 2021, followed by Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina and Arizona. It is the second year in a row that the same three states comprised the top three, with Tennessee taking top honors in 2020. Texas is the leading growth state for the fourth time in the last six years, and has never been lower than No. 2 in that span.
California ranks 50th and Illinois 49th for the second consecutive year, indicating those states saw the largest net losses of one-way U-Haul trucks.
Missouri’s top growth cities include Lee’s Summit, Ballwin, Ozark, Troy, Branson and Nixa.
Other notable net-gain cities include University City, Lake St. Louis, Bolivar, Lebanon, Union, St. Joseph, Camdenton, Overland, Blue Springs, St. Peters, Independence and Columbia.
While U-Haul migration trends do not correlate directly to population or economic growth, the U-Haul Growth Index is an effective gauge of how well states are both attracting and maintaining residents.
Visit myuhaulstory.com to view more individual state reports, the top 25 U.S. growth cities and the top 25 Canadian growth cities.
U-Haul is the authority on migration trends thanks to its expansive network that blankets all 50 states and 10 provinces. The geographical coverage from more than 23,000 U-Haul truck- and trailer-sharing locations provides a comprehensive overview of where people are moving like no one else in the industry.
Independent small business owners interested in joining the U-Haul Dealer Network at no cost and earning commissions from rental transactions at their locations can visit uhaul.com/dealer to learn more and submit an information form.
2021 U-HAUL GROWTH STATES
1. | Texas (2) |
2. | Florida (3) |
3. | Tennessee (1) |
4. | South Carolina (15) |
5. | Arizona (5) |
6. | Indiana (12) |
7. | Colorado (6) |
8. | Maine (29) |
9. | Idaho (30) |
10. | New Mexico (39) |
11. | South Dakota (25) |
12. | Vermont (26) |
13. | Wisconsin (13) |
14. | Oregon (45) |
15. | Washington (36) |
16. | Alaska (34) |
17. | Minnesota (20) |
18. | Connecticut (43) |
19. | North Carolina (9) |
20. | Nebraska (32) |
21. | Wyoming (33) |
22. | Montana (19) |
23. | Georgia (10) |
24. | Ohio (4) |
25. | New Hampshire (23) |
26. | West Virginia (16) |
27. | Iowa (24) |
28. | Utah (17) |
29. | Nevada (8) |
30. | Delaware (27) |
31. | Virginia (28) |
32. | Rhode Island (35) |
33. | North Dakota (37) |
34. | Maryland (46) |
35. | Washington, D.C. (38)* |
36. | New Jersey (48) |
37. | Mississippi (31) |
38. | Kentucky (18) |
39. | Missouri (7) |
40. | Kansas (21) |
41. | Arkansas (11) |
42. | Michigan (40) |
43. | Louisiana (44) |
44. | Oklahoma (14) |
45. | New York (42) |
46. | Alabama (22) |
47. | Massachusetts (47) |
48. | Pennsylvania (41) |
49. | Illinois (49) |
50. | California (50) |
2020 growth rankings in parentheses
Washington, D.C. is its own U-Haul market and is listed among growth states for migration trends purposes. Hawaii is excluded since state-to-state U-Haul truck moves do not occur.
About U-HAUL
Since 1945, U-Haul has been the No. 1 choice of do-it-yourself movers, with a network of more than 23,000 locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. U-Haul Truck Share 24/7 offers secure access to U-Haul trucks every hour of every day through the customer dispatch option on their smartphones and our proprietary Live Verify technology. Our customers’ patronage has enabled the U-Haul fleet to grow to approximately 176,000 trucks, 126,000 trailers and 46,000 towing devices. U-Haul offers nearly 825,000 rentable storage units and 71.6 million square feet of self-storage space at owned and managed facilities throughout North America. U-Haul is the largest retailer of propane in the U.S., and continues to be the largest installer of permanent trailer hitches in the automotive aftermarket industry. U-Haul has been recognized repeatedly as a leading “Best for Vets” employer and was recently named one of the 15 Healthiest Workplaces in America.