Florida leads the nation in net migration; Tampa metro area ranks fifth in the nation

June 3, 2020

Between July 1, 2018 and July 1, 2019, nearly 222,600 people – or 610 per day – moved to Florida, putting the Sunshine State first in the nation when it comes to net migration. Florida’s net migration numbers account for 37% of the total net migration in the nation. Following Florida is Texas, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia. New York, California and Illinois were at the bottom showing the largest declines.

When it comes to metro areas, the Tampa MSA, which consists of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties, ranks fifth in the nation with a total net migration of nearly 41,800 new residents – or 115 moving to the Tampa metro area every day. Tampa came in just behind Atlanta, which saw a gain of 119 per day. At the other end of the spectrum, the New York metro area ranked last at 384 and saw the worst decline – losing 376 residents per day, or a total of 137,400 in the one-year period.

On the state level, Hillsborough County ranked fifth in the state with more than 14,400 or 40 people moving to the county daily. Leading the top five is Polk County (17,311), Lee County (17,226), Pasco County (16,082) and Palm Beach County (14,460).

These statistics are based on U.S. Census data. Next month, the migration data will be available, which will tell us from where these new residents moved.