Minnesota’s ranked in top-10 of highest outbound migration states

(The Center Square) – Nearly 13,500 people moved from Minnesota to other parts of the United States from April 2020 through July 1, 2021, making it the eighth highest state for population loss through domestic migration, according to Dec. 21, 2021, data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

California, New York, Illinois (122,460), Massachusetts, New Jersey, Louisiana and Maryland saw more domestic departures. Michigan had domestic migration loss of 7,893.

Minnesota gained 4,042 residents through international migration, landing it with a total net migration loss of 9,411. The state therefore had the ninth lowest net migration over those months. The 10 states that had the highest domestic net migration were Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Mark Perry analyzed the differences between these groups across 14 metrics.

“And on each of those 14 measures, there is empirical evidence that the top ten inbound states are on average out-performing the top ten outbound states, suggesting that domestic migration patterns in the US do reflect Americans and firms ‘voting/moving with their feet’ from Democratic-controlled, high-tax, business-unfriendly, fiscally unhealthy, economically stagnant states with relatively high electricity and housing costs to Republican-controlled, lower-tax, more business-friendly, fiscally healthy and economically vibrant states with lower electricity and housing costs,” Perry said.

Minnesota is not a right-to-work state, while the top 10 net migration gainers are. It’s one of the eight top outbound migration states that has a Democratic governor while eight of the top 10 net migration gainers have Republican governors.

Like the other members of the group with the most losses (average 9.92%), Minnesota had higher state-local tax burden as a percentage of income in 2021 rankings (9.99% compared with an average 7.69% among the migration gainers). Along with its peers, Minnesota has higher top state individual income tax rates (9.85%, average outbound 8.0%, average inbound 3.8%) and top state corporate tax rate (9.80%, average outbound 8.3%, average inbound 4.1%) compared with top inbound states.

Minnesota does place higher in Forbes’ Best States for Business Rankings compared with both group’s average scores (33^rd top outbound states, 8^th top inbound states) and has lower median home prices according to 2020 data ($311,169 vs. $423,548 average outbound and $343,519 average inbound). It places 21^st in the 2019 US News Fiscal Stability Rankings while the average ranking for outbound states is 38^th and the average score for inbound states is 15^th.

However, it places 46^th in the Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Rankings, lower than the average for the outbound states (39^th) and inbound states (17^th). It also suffered in annual employment growth through November 2021 (0.8% vs. average outbound 2.5% and average inbound 4.0%) and 2021 current economic outlook rank (46^th vs 39^th average outbound and 10^th average inbound).