Top States People are Moving To: Arizona #5 - Signals AZ (2024)

Arizona is the No. 5 growth state in America for the second year in a row, according to 2021 transactional data compiled for the annual U-Haul® Growth Index.

People coming to Arizona in one-way U-Haul trucks rose more than 6% year-over-year, while departures increased just 4% from 2020.

Arriving customers accounted for 50.4% of all one-way U-Haul traffic in Arizona during 2021 to keep it a top-five state for netting do-it-yourself movers. The last two years, Arizona has been the favorite destination of U-Haul customers among all states west of Texas.

U-Haul International has been headquartered in Midtown Phoenix since 1967 and employs more than 3,500 Arizonans.

Growth states are calculated by the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks entering a state versus leaving that state in a calendar year. Migration trends data is compiled from well over 2 million one-way U-Haul truck customer transactions that occur annually.

“Arizona has been seeing steady growth for a number of years,” said Jesse Ashdown, U-Haul Company of Northwest Phoenix president. “People are able to sell their homes in California, and buy all cash here. The homes are bigger and there’s more available land. Arizona is also known for its great weather and mild winters, stunning landscapes, abundance of jobs, and a decent cost of living. We have really become a magnet for people.”

U-Haul customers made Texas the No. 1 growth state of 2021, followed by Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina. It is the second year in a row that the same three states comprised the top three, with Tennessee taking top honors in 2020. Texas is the leading growth state for the fourth time in the last six years and has never been lower than No. 2 in that span.

California ranks 50th and Illinois 49th for the second consecutive year, indicating those states saw the largest net losses of one-way U-Haul trucks.

Arizona’s top growth cities include Surprise, Tucson, Glendale, Casa Grande, Goodyear and Queen Creek.

Other notable net-gain cities are Buckeye, Litchfield Park, Wickenburg, Marana, Chandler, Avondale, Anthem, Gilbert and the Pinetop-Lakeside market.

While U-Haul migration trends do not correlate directly to population or economic growth, the U-Haul Growth Index is an effective gauge of how well states are both attracting and maintaining residents.

Visit myuhaulstory.com to view more individual state reports, the top 25 U.S. growth cities and the top 25 Canadian growth cities.

U-Haul is the authority on migration trends thanks to its expansive network that blankets all 50 states and 10 provinces. The geographical coverage from more than 23,000 U-Haul truck- and trailer-sharing locations provides a comprehensive overview of where people are moving like no one else in the industry.

Independent small business owners interested in joining the U-Haul Dealer Network at no cost and earning commissions from rental transactions at their locations can visit uhaul.com/dealer to learn more and submit an information form.

2021 U-HAUL GROWTH STATES listed below 1 through 50 with 2020 growth rankings listed as the second number stated in parentheses.

#1 Texas (2)

#2 Florida (3)

#3 Tennessee (1)

#4 South Carolina (15)

#5 Arizona (5)

#6 Indiana (12)

#7 Colorado (6)

#8 Maine (29)

#9 Idaho (30)

#10 New Mexico (39)

#11 South Dakota (25)

#12 Vermont (26)

#13 Wisconsin (13)

#14 Oregon (45)

#15 Washington (36)

#16 Alaska (34)

#17 Minnesota (20)

#18 Connecticut (43)

#19 North Carolina (9)

#20 Nebraska (32)

#21 Wyoming (33)

#22 Montana (19)

#23 Georgia (10)

#24 Ohio (4)

#25 New Hampshire (23)

#26 West Virginia (16)

#27 Iowa (24)

#28 Utah (17)

#29 Nevada (8)

#30 Delaware (27)

#31 Virginia (28)

#32 Rhode Island (35)

#33 North Dakota (37)

#34 Maryland (46)

#35 Washington, D.C. (38)*

#36 New Jersey (48)

#37 Mississippi (31)

#38 Kentucky (18)

#39 Missouri (7)

#40 Kansas (21)

#41 Arkansas (11)

#42 Michigan (40)

#43 Louisiana (44)

#44 Oklahoma (14)

#45 New York (42)

#46 Alabama (22)

#47 Massachusetts (47)

#48 Pennsylvania (41)

#49 Illinois (49)

#50 California (50)

* Washington, D.C. is its own U-Haul market and is listed among growth states for migration trends purposes. Hawaii is excluded since state-to-state U-Haul truck moves do not occur.

About U-HAUL
Since 1945, U-Haul has been the No. 1 choice of do-it-yourself movers, with a network of more than 23,000 locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. U-Haul Truck Share 24/7 offers secure access to U-Haul trucks every hour of every day through the customer dispatch option on their smartphones and our proprietary Live Verify technology. Our customers’ patronage has enabled the U-Haul fleet to grow to approximately 176,000 trucks, 126,000 trailers, and 46,000 towing devices. U-Haul offers nearly 825,000 rentable storage units and 71.6 million square feet of self-storage space at owned and managed facilities throughout North America. U-Haul is the largest retailer of propane in the U.S. and continues to be the largest installer of permanent trailer hitches in the automotive aftermarket industry. U-Haul has been recognized repeatedly as a leading “Best for Vets” employer and was recently named one of the 15 Healthiest Workplaces in America.

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