General Moving Industry Statistics:
1. The moving industry employs 122,600 people with an annual payroll of $3.6 billion.
2. The industry is comprised mostly of small businesses.
- 47.8% of industry companies employ fewer than 5 people.
- Only 8.5% of industry companies employ 100 or more people.
3. The number of interstate household moves sits at around 3 million annually.
4. Surprisingly, more people utilize the do-it-yourself method than employ professional movers.
- by professional movers: 650,000
- by a consumer with a rented truck: 1 million
- by consumer unassisted: 1.35 million
Moving Behaviors and Trends:
5. Who uses moving companies?
- Individuals: 44%
- Corporate: 38%
- Military: 16%
- Other federal government: 2%
6. The items most commonly being moved are:
- Household goods: 73%
- Computers, copiers and other electronic office equipment: 20%
- Exhibits and trade shows: 6%
- Office and institutional: 1% (mostly local moves)
7. The average mover is part of a couple between the ages of 18 to 34 with one or two kids. As people get older, their tendency to move decreases significantly.
8. Around half of all moves take place in the summer, between the beginning of May and Labor Day.
9. The average cost of an interstate move is $4,300, while the average cost of an in-state move is $2,300.
Moving Statistics in the United States:
10. The average annual percent of Americans who move is 11.2%.
11. The actual number of Americans who move annually is around 35.1 million.
- That’s 15.3 million households at 2.3 persons per household.
12. 9.3% of Americans made a move within the same state.
13. 1.5% of Americans moved to a different state.
14. 0.4% of Americans moved from the U.S. to another country.
15. Of the Americans who moved (35.1 million):
- 82.7% moved within the same state
- 13.4% moved to a different state
- 0.36% moved from the U.S. to another country
Reasons for Moving:
16. Reason for moving (U.S. Census questionnaire for 2015-16):
- Wanted new or better home/apartment — 17.4%
- To establish own household — 12.2%
- New job or transfer — 10.8%
- Other family reason — 10.5%
- Wanted cheaper housing — 8.2%
- Other housing reason — 6.7%
- To be closer to work/easier commute — 6%
- Wanted to own their own home, not rent — 5.9%
- Change in marital status — 4.8%
- Other reasons — 4.4%
- To attend or leave college — 3.2%
- Wanted better neighborhood/less crime — 3.1%
- Health reasons — 1.8%
- To look for work or lost job — 1.5%
- Other job-related reasons — 1.2%
- Foreclosure/eviction — 0.9%
- Change of climate — 0.8%
- Retired — 0.7%
- Natural disaster — 0.1%
Moving and Millennials:
17. Older (age 25 to 35) Millennials are moving less than previous generations. Only 20% of Millennials reported having moved in the last year. Compare that to the silent generation in 1963 at 26% and Generation X in 2000 at 26%.
18. Only 42% of Millennials (aged 25 to 35) were married and living with their spouse in 2016. By comparison, 82% of Silent Generationers of the same age were married and living with their spouse in 1963.
19. In 1981, 56% of Baby Boomer 25 to 35 year-olds lived in homes they owned themselves, but only 37% of Millennials own homes.
20. In 2016, 56% of Millennials aged 25 to 35 were childless.
21. If they’re not tied down by spouses, houses, and children, why are Millennials staying put? Less labor market opportunities and less motivation to move into a home that they will own could both play a factor in their decisions.
Economic Impact of Moving in the United States in 2020:
22. The total economic impact of the moving industry in 2020 was $85.7 billion.
23. There were 482,081 jobs created indirectly as a result of people moving.
24. There were 186,722 total jobs created directly through the moving industry.
25. Americans in the moving industry earned $27.9 billion, which resulted in $9.42 billion in taxes earned.
When and Where People Move:
Summer is definitely the most popular time to move. Around half of all moves that happen each year take place between the beginning of May and Labor Day.
Here’s what percentage of the total number of moves happen in each month of the calendar year:
- January: 3%
- February: 6%
- March: 9%
- April: 8%
- May: 10%
- June: 13%
- July: 12%
- August: 12%
- September: 9%
- October: 7%
- November: 6%
- December: 3%
And while we know that weekends are the most popular time for people to move, here’s how annual moves actually break down by day of the week:
- Sunday: 8%
- Monday: 16%
- Tuesday: 11%
- Wednesday: 13%
- Thursday: 14%
- Friday: 20%
- Saturday: 18%
The busiest moving day in 2018 was June 1. The second busiest day was August 1.
The majority of Americans who move stay in the same state. Here’s how the numbers break down out of the 31 million Americans who move each year:
- 82.7% move within their home state.
- 13.4% move to a different state.
- 0.36% move to a different country.
Movers who stay in the same state don’t tend to go very far at all. 40.2% of all movers relocated less than 50 miles from their old home to their new one.
Only 24.7 percent of movers relocate 500 miles or more.
Which states do most people move to? Here are the top 10:
- Idaho
- Nevada
- Vermont
- Arizona
- Oregon
- North Carolina
- Tennessee
- Montana
- South Carolina
- Alabama
Which states do most people move away from? Here are the top 10:
- Illinois
- New Jersey
- West Virginia
- New York
- Alaska
- North Dakota
- Connecticut
- Kansas
- Michigan
- California
These are the states that had the largest net gain of movers in 2018:
- Idaho: 84.38% net gain
- Montana: 82.35% net gain
- Vermont: 64.29% net gain
- Wyoming: 38.46% net gain
- New Mexico: 31.03% net gain
- Delaware: 29.49% net gain
- South Carolina: 24.70% net gain
- Maine: 17.05% net gain
- Oregon: 16.84% net gain
- Arizona: 16.21% net gain
These are the states that had the largest net loss of movers in 2018:
- Nebraska: -19.23% net loss
- Connecticut: -16.35% net loss
- Illinois: -15.82% net loss
- California: -13.03% net loss
- Massachusetts: -12.82% net loss
- New Jersey: -12.78% net loss
- Louisiana: -11.20% net loss
- Maryland: -10.78% net loss
- Indiana: -10.02% net loss
- New York: -10.02% net loss
People who move from North Dakota and South Dakota tend to move the longest distances (1,214 miles and 1,149 miles respectively).
People who move from Pennsylvania and New Hampshire tend to move the shortest distances (50 miles and 65 miles, respectively).
These are the busiest moving routes in the United States:
- California to Texas
- New York to Florida
- California to Washington
- California to Arizona
- New York to California
Self-Storage and the Moving Industry:
31. Annual Self-Storage Revenue in the U.S.: $36 billion.
32. The typical size of a storage unit facility is 2.5 to 5 acres, with 46,000/sf of rentable space on average. Facility sizes range from 10,000 to 100,000+ square feet.
33. The total amount of self-storage space in the U.S. totals 2.3 billion sqft.
34. There are 48,500 storage units in the U.S.
35.The most expensive markets to rent a 10×10 storage unit in are:
- San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont: $160/m
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana: $153/m
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara: $153/m
- New York-Newark-Edison: $137/m
- San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA: $136/m
We hope this shed some light on the moving industry for you and you were able to gain some neat facts as well. People are always moving to different places for different reasons - we want to be the ones to help you make your next move!