They Came for Texas. They Came for Florida.
South Carolina Is Growing Faster Than Both.
For three straight years, the U-Haul Growth Index ranked Texas as the No. 1 state Americans were moving to. In 2024, Texas got beat — not by Florida, not by Tennessee, not by Idaho. By South Carolina. The Palmetto State posted the fastest per-capita inbound migration in the country two years running, added 59,000+ residents from other states between 2022 and 2023 (IRS), netted 68,043 domestic migrants in the latest Census data, and gained $4.1 billion in adjusted gross income. Meanwhile, California lost $11.9 billion in AGI and New York lost $10 billion. The numbers come from the IRS, the U.S. Census Bureau, U-Haul, United Van Lines, the Tax Foundation, and the California Legislative Analyst's own auditor. This is what the receipts say.
- +68,043net domestic migrantsSouth Carolina · FY 2024 · #1 per-capita inbound · Census Vintage 2024
- $4.1Bincome gained29,000 new SC tax filers · IRS migration tables 2022→2023
- -$11.9BCalifornia AGI lost239,575 net domestic out-migrants · IRS · LA County alone -54,000
- 1.99%future SC top rateH.4216 · McMaster (R) · auto-trigger toward income-tax elimination
The U-Haul Growth Index is not a poll, not a forecast, not a policy paper. It is a count of where 2.5 million one-way truck and trailer transactionsended up over the calendar year. From 2021 through 2023, that count put Texas first. In 2024, it didn't. South Carolina climbed three spots and unseated Texas. 51.7%of all U-Haul movers crossing the Palmetto State's border were arrivals.
The U.S. Census Bureau confirmed the same direction with a different dataset. South Carolina's population grew 1.7% from July 2023 to July 2024 — adding 91,000 residents to reach 5,479,000. 68,043 of thosewere net domestic migrants, the third-largest absolute domestic gain in the country, behind only Texas and North Carolina. Adjusted for state size, South Carolina's domestic-migration growth rate of +1.26%was the highest in the nation — second straight year, per the Tax Foundation's January 2025 analysis of Census data.
“For every 100 people living in the state, one new person moved in from elsewhere.”
Fox News, summarizing IRS migration data · May 7, 2026
United Van Lines' 48th Annual National Movers Study — the moving company's own customer-flow report — logged South Carolina at 62% inbound moves in 2024. Inside South Carolina, Myrtle Beach hit 80% inbound, one of the highest single-metro inbound rates in the country. Florida and Texas, historically the powerhouse destinations, both fell to “balanced” in the same study — equal moves in and out for the first time since United Van Lines began tracking Florida's inbound run in 2018.
The IRS doesn't guess where people moved — it matches federal income-tax addresses across consecutive years. Between 2022 and 2023, South Carolina gained more than 59,000 net new residents from other states, picking up 29,000 new tax filers and $4.1 billion in adjusted gross income. The states writing the checks: New York, North Carolina, and New Jersey, in that order, per the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce's own analysis of the IRS file.
On the other side of the ledger, the IRS migration tables are unkind to high-tax blue states. California lost more than 100,000 net tax filers in the 2022-2023 tax year and roughly $11.9 billion in adjusted gross income. The state's own Legislative Analyst's Office— not a partisan think tank, not Fox News — reported on July 31, 2024 that more than $102 billionin income left California from 2020 to 2022 alone, and that the state's income-tax revenues could have been $8.1 billion higher in any given year had net out-migration not occurred. New York lost nearly 72,000 tax filers and roughly $10 billion in income over the same one-year window.
Top recipients of incoming AGI: Florida (+$36B), Texas (+$10.1B), South Carolina (+$4.1B), Tennessee (+$3.8B), North Carolina (+$3.4B), Idaho (+$2.8B).
Top losers of departing AGI: California (-$11.9B), New York (-$10.0B), Illinois (-$5.6B), New Jersey (-$5.4B), Massachusetts (-$3.7B), Maryland (-$2.6B).
The pattern is consistent and federally documented: every state in the top recipients list has a top marginal personal-income-tax rate of 5.21% or lower; every state in the top losers list is at 5.75% or higher. Tax Foundation finds the average top rate in the bottom-third (lowest-growth) states is 6.7%; in the top-third (highest-growth) states it's 3.5%.
On April 15, 2026, Gov. Henry McMaster (R-SC) ceremonially signed House Bill 4216— the most aggressive overhaul of the South Carolina individual income-tax structure in state history. The bill collapses the existing six-bracket system into a two-bracket structure: 1.99% on taxable income up to $30,000 and 5.21% on income above $30,000, down from a top rate of 6.0%. The S.C. Office of Revenue and Fiscal Affairs estimates 42.8% of South Carolina taxpayers will see a direct liability reduction. Total taxpayer savings under the new schedule: $325 million.
That's the rate cut. The structural piece of H.4216 is the trigger mechanism. Beginning tax year 2027, if individual income-tax revenues grow by at least 5% in a given fiscal year, the top rate automatically reducesthe following year — with reductions continuing until the top rate hits 1.99%, and continuing downward until the income tax is eliminated entirely. The auto-trigger means the legislature doesn't have to re-vote. Growth pays for the next cut.
“South Carolina's booming economy created a record budget surplus in the 2024-2025 budget, totaling over $1.64 billion in unexpected revenue.”
Office of S.C. Governor Henry McMaster (R) · FY 2024-2025 budget summary
The arithmetic working in the state's favor: South Carolina's combined state-and-local tax burden per capita is below the U.S. average. Cost of living is well below California, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Housing — the single biggest budget item for any moving family — is dramatically cheaper. A median home in Charleston runs about half the median in Los Angeles County. The Tax Foundation's January 2025 finding still applies: 18 of the 26 states with below-average tax burdens experienced net inbound migration in FY 2024; 17 of the 25 states (plus DC) at or above the national average lost residents to other states.
Population growth in South Carolina is not evenly distributed. Per the SC Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office, more than 80% of population gain since the 2020 Census has occurred in just 10 counties: Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Lancaster, Lexington, Greenville, Horry, Richland, Spartanburg, and York. The county-level numbers are striking: Jasper County, between Hilton Head Island and Savannah, was the third-fastest-growing county in the nation in 2024 at +5.9%. Horry County (Myrtle Beach) ranked 34th nationally at +3.8%. Berkeley County ranked 61st at +3.2%. Beaufort County has grown 7% since the 2020 Census.
Coastal:Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Horry — retiree-heavy + remote-work + tourism job base.
Charlotte spillover:Lancaster, York — sub-50-minute commutes to Uptown Charlotte for residents paying SC tax rates.
Upstate / I-85 corridor:Greenville, Spartanburg — BMW, Michelin, manufacturing wage base.
Midlands:Lexington, Richland — Columbia metro, USC, state government.
The geography of growth is the geography of jobs plus housing. Counties without one or both are not seeing the boom.
South Carolina is not alone. The Census and IRS data tell a coherent regional story. Texas still leads in absolute net migration (+85,267 in FY 2024) and adds a net new tax filer roughly every four minutes and forty seconds, per a National Taxpayers Union Foundation analysis published April 7, 2026. Florida remains the single biggest recipient of incoming AGI ($36 billion in 2022→2023). Idaho posted the second-fastest per-capita inbound growth in 2024 (+0.83%), behind only South Carolina. Tennessee (+0.68%), North Carolina (+0.76%), and Delaware (+0.79%) round out the top five.
Eight of the top ten inbound states have a state personal income tax of 5.21% or lower; three have no state income tax at all (Texas, Florida, Tennessee). Of the seven worst outbound states, five have top marginal rates above 9%— with California (13.3%), New York (10.9%), New Jersey (10.75%), Hawaii (11%), and Massachusetts (9% on high earners after the millionaires' tax) at the top of the list.
The most damning California number does not come from a Republican think tank. It comes from California's own Legislative Analyst's Office. In a July 31, 2024 report, the LAO concluded that more than $102 billion in adjusted gross incomeleft California to other states between 2020 and 2022. Applying the LAO's own income-tax-revenue elasticity to those losses: California's annual income-tax revenue could have been $8.1 billion higherper year had the migration not occurred — an amount that scales to a multi-year cumulative hit running into the tens of billions.
The Center for Jobs and the Economy's analysis of LAO source data found California lost 24,670 affluent taxpayerswith AGI of $200,000 or more in 2022 alone — reducing the state's combined high-earner AGI by $16.1 billion. Because California's tax code is the most progressive in the country, those high-earner departures translate to disproportionate revenue losses. Roughly 1% of California taxpayers pay nearly 50%of state income-tax revenue. When some of them leave, the rest of the budget doesn't.
Los Angeles County alone shed ~54,000 residentsbetween July 2024 and July 2025 — the largest single-county population drop in the nation per Census Bureau estimates. San Francisco Countyhas lost population every year since 2019. New York City, Chicago's Cook County, and the Boston metro area show similar trajectories. Brookings Institution demographer William Frey called the pattern “a structural redistribution of America's tax base toward the Sunbelt.”
“The single most important thing that is going on in this country, economically and demographically, is the massive shift in migration that's happened over the last 10 to 20 years, and it is accelerating.”
Stephen Moore, founding member · Committee to Unleash Prosperity · launching the Vote With Your Feet IRS-data project
“In 2023, more than TWICE as many Americans moved from California and New York to Florida and Texas than moved in the opposite direction. Americans continue to vote with their feet!”
Stephen Moore on X · October 2024 · referencing IRS Statistics of Income 2022→2023 release
“Americans were on the move in 2024, and many chose low-tax states over high-tax ones. Of the 26 states whose overall state and local tax burdens per capita were below the national average in 2022, 18 experienced net inbound interstate migration in FY 2024. Of the 25 states and DC with tax burdens at or above the national average, 17 experienced net outbound migration.”
Tax Foundation · “Americans Moved to Low-Tax States in 2024” · January 2025
“South Carolina is officially the fastest-growing state in the nation. Our population surged by 1.5% between July 2024 and July 2025, outpacing every other state in the country.”
South Carolina Department of Employment & Workforce · February 2026 labor market briefing
The IRS doesn't poll. The Census doesn't poll. U-Haul and United Van Lines count actual moves. Across all four datasets, the same picture holds: Americans are leaving high-tax, high-cost-of-living blue states — and the place absorbing them at the fastest per-capita clip in the country is South Carolina. Texas still gets the biggest absolute number. Florida still gets the most income. But the breakout state of 2024 was the Palmetto State. Gov. McMaster's H.4216 added a structural rate cut and an auto-trigger toward eliminating the state income tax entirely. California's own Legislative Analyst documented a $102 billion AGI exodus over three years and an $8 billion-a-year revenue hit. None of these are arguable. They are the receipts.