People Are Fleeing Detroit

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 4, 6:45AM EST

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People Are Fleeing Detroit — © franckreporter / iStock via Getty Images

The COVID-19 pandemic started a great migration. As people could work from home by the millions, they began to relocate, often from America’s large, expensive coastal cities to less expensive ones, often in the South. This caused an influx of people to Arizona, Florida and Texas. States such as New York and California, and states in the upper Midwest, lost people, according to the Census Bureau. The same pattern was true with America’s largest cities. (See why Detroit is one of the most dangerous cities in America.)

Where Did They Come From, Where Did They Go?

The United Van Lines 47th Annual National Movers Study is a major annual survey of American relocation habits. The new edition covers 2023 and is based on the moving company’s proprietary data, using information about where it moves its customers over the year. The trends it found match many of those that started during the pandemic: “We are continuing to see the trend that Americans are moving to more affordable, lower-density areas across the country, with many heading to Southern states.”

The 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) by population were divided into two groups based on the number of inbound moves into the cities compared to outbound moves. “High inbound” cities are those where 55% of moves were inbound, while “high outbound” cities are where 55% moved away from the MSA.

An analysis of the country’s largest cities showed a similar geographic pattern to states. Eight of the top 15 MSAs with the highest percentage of inbound movers were in Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina or Georgia. The list was led by Charlotte, N.C., where 64% of the moves were inbound in 2023.

Of the 15 metros with the most outbound movers, 10 were in California, New York or New Jersey. However, the city with the largest percentage of outbound moves among the 50 largest MSAs was Detroit. Sixty-four percent of its moves were outbound, so the data should not come as a surprise. Detroit has lost over half its population since the 1960s and is one of America’s most impoverished cities.

These are the 10 cities with the most people moving away:

Detroit, Mich. (64.11%)
Chicago, Ill. (62.81%)
Riverside, Calif. (61.58%)
New York, N.Y (60.62%)
San Diego, Calif. (60.06%)
Buffalo, N.Y. (59.13%)
Boston, Mass. (57.48%)
Los Angeles, Calif. (56.46%)
Memphis, Tenn. (56.42%)
Sacramento, Calif. (55.72%)

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.