The pandemic prompted plenty of moves for families all across the country. Whether it was prompted by the ability to work remotely, folks were trying to escape overbearing COVID restrictions, they wanted to live somewhere with significantly lower taxes, or a change of scenery was needed, the departures have come aplenty over the last two years.

Iowa is no exception.

According to the newly released 2021 Atlas Van Lines Migration Patterns study, there were 20 states where their population of inbound and outbound movers stayed relatively neutral, 18 states saw an increase in inbound movers, and 12 states registered as outbound, which means more people left the state than moved in. Iowa ranked eighth in the country in most outbound movers.

New York ranks the highest in the nation for most outbound movers, a status the state has held for three years in a row. Maine took the number one spot for most inbound movers "for the first-time following Idaho’s two-year run as the country’s inbound leader."

The rankings are as follows:

Outbound

1. New York

2. Illinois

3. Louisiana

4. New Jersey

5. West Virginia

6. Indiana

7. California

8. Iowa

9. Connecticut

10. Ohio

Inbound

1. Maine

2. North Carolina

3. Arkansas

4. Tennessee

5. Utah

6. District of Columbia

7. Idaho

8. Hawaii

9. Montana

10. Florida

The midwest as a whole consistently ranks highly among the outbound states, or remains neutral. This is what the site had to say about the region: "The Midwest registered one change in 2021, with Michigan shifting from balanced to outbound, a classification it has not held since 2010. The Midwest region reported the most outbound states with Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio ranking in the top 10. For the fifth year in a row, the Midwest registered zero inbound states."

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