By Mark Glennon and John Klingner* | Wirepoints
The Internal Revenue Service on Friday released its annual numbers on taxpayer interstate migration, which are for changes from 2022 to 2023. In several ways, these numbers are more important than census numbers because they measure income taxpayers and are precise — the IRS knows and reports how many taxpayers changed their residence from one state to another.
Here are the key takeaways for Illinois:
- For the year, Illinois lost 54,000 people (tax filers and their dependents), to net domestic out migration. That’s the 3rd most in the nation, behind only California and New York.
- The annual incomes of people moving out of Illinois are far bigger than for those moving in — $104,000 vs. $79,000.
- From 2000 through 2023, Illinois lost 780,000 net taxpayers (filers) to out-migration.
- Adding in those taxpayers’ dependents, Illinois lost 1.6 million net residents to out-migration from 2000 through 2023.
- Most importantly, since 2000, $94 billion of Adjusted Gross Income left with departing taxpayers. That’s just for the first year after departure. Assuming they continued to work, the true aggregate total is far higher.
Details are in the charts shown.
On the surface, it may appear that Illinois’ rate of loss declined in that the number of taxpayer leaving with their income was less than recent years, as you can see in the charts. However, that reduction is likely attributable to the sharp decline in moves of any kind — to a record low. 2023 saw the fewest amount of moves nationwide since the U.S government began tracking the data in the 1940s. That reduction in moves resulted mostly from the sale sclerosis that set in as mortgage interest rates spiked from 2022 to 2023. That left many homeowners reluctant to sell because they did not want to give up the low-rate mortgages they obtained earlier.
Among other states, the biggest winners of taxpayers and income gained were Florida, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Arizona, in that order.
(Click on image to enlarge)
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*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints and John Klingner was earlier its Research Director.
Editorial note: Those living in Illinois illegally, such as the 25-year-old Venezuelan migrant Jose Medina of the 6800 block of North Sheridan Road in the Rogers Park neighborhood who assassinated an 18-year-old Loyola University freshman recently, are likely not counted in the IRS figures.