ARKANSAS, USA — Many people have relocated to the Natural State in the past year and are coming from states like Texas, California, and Missouri, according to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration (DFA).
United Van Lines' 2023 Annual National Movers Study placed Arkansas as the fourth most moved-to-state this past year based on household moves handled by the UniGroup network, a parent company of United Van Lines.
United Van Lines recorded a 60.16% inbound move rate to Arkansas. Many factors played into this large percentage such as job opportunities, retirement, and the urge to be closer to family.
Fortune 500 companies including Walmart, Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt, Murphy USA, and Dillard's continue to draw people to Arkansas from all across the country. According to the study, 32% of movers found that the biggest motivator to move to Arkansas was a new job or a job transfer.
Additionally, 20% of movers made the change to be closer to family and 16.5% moved for retirement.
According to the study, these are the top ten states people have moved to in 2023:
- Vermont
- Washington, D.C.
- South Carolina
- Arkansas
- Rhode Island
- North Carolina
- South Dakota
- Alabama
- New Mexico
- West Virginia
Arkansas sticks out as the only Southern state among its East Coast neighbors in the top five. The only other Southern state on the list is Alabama, and there are no states from the West Coast included.
Scott Hardin, the spokesperson for the DFA, said the top states people are moving from to live in Arkansas are Texas and California.
The DFA assesses where people move from based on the number of out-of-state license transfers to Arkansas licenses. These are the top ten places where people moved from in 2023, according to the license transfers:
- Texas
- California
- Missouri
- Oklahoma
- Florida
- Louisiana
- Tennessee
- Illinois
- Colorado
- Arizona
Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Tennessee all border Arkansas.
"While it is not surprising that new citizens are moving from surrounding states, it is certainly encouraging to see people choosing Arkansas from the West Coast and East Coast," Hardin said.
Hardin said there are some specific reasons why some people are moving from states like California.
"We believe it is due to a considerably lower cost of living, income tax rates that are more competitive and are being reduced, and employment opportunities in a wide variety of sectors," Hardin said.
According to the U.S. News and World Report, Arkansas is the third most affordable city to live in behind Alabama and Mississippi.
Hardin said the states with the least inbound license transfers to Arkansas were Vermont, Delaware, and Rhode Island.
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