The 20 American Cities Where the Most People Are Leaving

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Oct 30, 11:07AM EDT · Published Oct 29, 1:00PM EDT

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The 20 American Cities Where the Most People Are Leaving — © ChrisBoswell / iStock via Getty Images

The primary catalyst of moves in the past year and half is the work-from-home lifestyle driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many companies were forced to clear out offices because of the virus. Some of these companies have decided to allow workers to work wherever they would like.

United Van Lines tracks which cities and states people are leaving and which they are going to in its Annual National Movers Study, which it has published for 45 years. The research is based on the number of households United Van Lines has moved. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the study to find the 20 metropolitan areas with the highest percentage of outbound moves in 2021. A metro area had to have more than 100 moves to be considered.

Commenting on the results, Michael A. Stoll, economist and professor in the Department of Public Policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, said, “This new data from United Van Lines is indicative of COVID-19’s impact on domestic migration patterns, with 2021 bringing an acceleration of moves to smaller, midsized towns and cities.” (These are the 16 states where the population shrank since the pandemic started.)

One trend the study shows is that the cities people are leaving tend to be concentrated around New York City. The city with the highest percentage of departures is Nassau-Suffolk, which is east of the city on Long Island. Departures accounted for 79% of total moves. Of the 12 metropolitan areas with the highest outbound moves, seven are in the New York City area.

These are the 20 cities Americans are moving out of the fastest

20. Lake, IL
> Percent of moves outbound: 67%

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19. Bismarck, ND
> Percent of moves outbound: 67%

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18. Rockford, IL
> Percent of moves outbound: 67%

Monmouth County, New Jersey by Doug Kerr

Monmouth County, New Jersey (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Doug Kerr

17. Monmouth, NJ
> Percent of moves outbound: 68%

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Hamilton Ohio (CC BY-SA 2.0) by 5chw4r7z

16. Hamilton, OH
> Percent of moves outbound: 68%

15. Oxnard, CA
> Percent of moves outbound: 69%

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14. Lake Charles, LA
> Percent of moves outbound: 69%

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13. Chicago, IL
> Percent of moves outbound: 70%

12. Jersey City, NJ
> Percent of moves outbound: 71%

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11. Trenton, NJ
> Percent of moves outbound: 71%

10. Springfield, IL
> Percent of moves outbound: 72%

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Middlesex County, New Jersey by Doug Kerr

Middlesex County, New Jersey (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Doug Kerr

9. Middlesex, NJ
> Percent of moves outbound: 72%

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8. Poughkeepsie, NY
> Percent of moves outbound: 73%

7. Joliet, IL
> Percent of moves outbound: 74%

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6. Newark, NJ
> Percent of moves outbound: 74%

5. Binghamton, NY
> Percent of moves outbound: 75%

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Bergen County, New Jersey (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Doug Kerr

4. Bergen, NJ
> Percent of moves outbound: 76%

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3. Santa Cruz, CA
> Percent of moves outbound: 76%

2. Hagerstown, MD
> Percent of moves outbound: 77%

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1. Nassau-Suffolk, NY
> Percent of moves outbound: 79%

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.