California ranks first among states for outbound U-Haul trucks for third straight year

For the third consecutive year, California ranked dead last in a report released by U-Haul on Growth States for 2022. As more people sought to leave the state, U-Haul saw the highest demand for one-way equipment from California outbound residents, and saw the highest net loss of one-way U-Haul trucks from the Golden State.

U-Haul compared the net gain of one way U-Haul trucks arriving at a particular city or state to those leaving that city or state from January to December 2022, to arrive at its Growth Index.

John Taylor, International President of U-Haul stated, “We still have areas with strong demand for one-way rentals. While overall migration in 2021 was record-breaking, we continue to experience significant customer demand to move out of some geographic areas to destinations at the top of our growth list.”

America's most populous state, had the highest net outward domestic migration out of all 50 states in Fiscal Year 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In that stretch, 343,230 more Americans moved out of California compared to those who moved into it.

A California Department of Finance report demonstrated that outmigration is outpacing the state’s birth and death rate adding to the negative impact on its total population.

Since COVID, the California Policy Lab has found that the state has seen a 12% increase in the number of people leaving.

In 2022 a number of companies relocated southern California offices to other states. Corporations like Chevron and American Airlines looking to make the change offered to pay their employees to relocate or help with the cost, if staffers chose to continue with the company at the new location.

“The 2022 trends in migration followed very similar patterns to 2021 with Texas, Florida, the Carolinas and the Southwest continuing to see solid growth,” Taylor said in the report.

Texas was the top Growth state for the third consecutive year, and for the fifth time in the past six years. Florida too, ranked second in 2022 as a top growth state.

The U-Haul Report claims that its growth index “is an effective gauge of how well states and cities are attracting and maintaining residents.” and does not directly correlate to economic or population increases.

U-Haul has a network that covers all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. Its 23,000 truck-and trailer-sharing outlets are able to give a ‘big picture’ view of the movement of people in a unique way.