As more people call North Carolina home, data helps explain where everyone is coming from.
More people were coming from Florida than any other state in 2017, according to a Carolina Demography blog post published Thursday.
The Sunshine State accounted for about 32,000 new residents, the population analysis says. Also rounding out the list of top five states were:
- Virginia with 29,000 residents moving to North Carolina
- South Carolina with 27,000 residents moving to North Carolina
- New York with 27,000 residents moving to North Carolina
- and California with 20,000 residents moving to North Carolina
So, why are people packing their bags for North Carolina?
While many would like to think juicy barbecue and nail-biting college basketball games are pushing people here, there could be other factors at work.
About one-third of South Carolinians coming to the Tar Heel State were actually born here, Carolina Demography says.
Also, most people wanting to move to a new state consider going to one that borders their own, according to a LendingTree study published last year. In fact, its findings say North Carolina was the top-ranking destination for those living in neighboring South Carolina and Virginia.
The study also found New York was one of the top states people wanted to move from. In the Northeast, snowy weather and high costs of living are among the factors prompting people to relocate, MarketWatch reported in January.
But what about California?
The allure of being “close to the mountains and the ocean without having to pay the high price tag” helped attract Cheyenne Levinson to the Triangle, she wrote on the Raleigh Moms blog. The area public school system and nearby universities were also a plus, she says.
Also of note, the states of California, Florida and New York are among the five most-populous in the country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In all, “North Carolina’s population has grown by 848,000 new residents or 8.9%, since the 2010 Census, rising to 10.4 million residents as of 2018,” according to the Carolina Demography blog published Thursday.
Though some of the surge came from birth rates, more people are coming here than are leaving, its analysis says.
Within the United States, the fewest newcomers are from “South Dakota, Rhode Island, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and New Hampshire,” Carolina Demography says.
About 15 percent of those coming into North Carolina are moving internationally, with the largest portion coming from India, the blog says.
Carolina Demography is a service of the Carolina Population Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, its website says.
BY SIMONE JASPER
Raleigh News & Observer