Fewer Americans on the Move

Overall, when looking at both migration between U.S. states and within them, fewer Americans are moving each year. In 1948, the first year on record with the Census Bureau, more than 20 percent of the population moved in the past year. This had decreased to just 8.7 percent in 2022. While the share of Americans moving across state lines remained more stable, those moving within their state became much fewer, from between 15-17 percent of Americans per year in the 1950s and 1960s to results in the single digits in the new millennium.

In absolute terms, the annual number of Americans moving peaked in 1985 at 38.1 million or 20 percent of the population. In 1948, 20 percent of Americans had only amounted to 23.8 million people. While they move less often now, Americans are still known as one of the most mobile population on the planet. In 2011 and 2012, Gallup asked people around the world if they had moved in the past year. 21 percent of Americans said yes then, compared to only an average of 8 percent globally. FiveThirtyEight calculated - based on 2007 Census data - that the average American at that point in time was expected to move 11.4 times in their lifetime.