Wondering where all those new Arizonans are coming from?
New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show more than 256,000 people moved here last year from somewhere else.
Close to a quarter of them arrived from another country.
But there also was a lot of what’s called domestic migration.
That includes more than 54,000 former Californians. If you believe some of the political rhetoric, some are fleeing because of that state’s liberal policies.
Yet if things are that bad there, that fails to explain the fact that some 21,000 Arizonans decided during the same period that life is better in the Golden State.
And surely, if what has been driving people to Arizona is this state’s more conservative politics, that doesn’t explain the nearly 17,000 from deep-red Texas who decided they prefer Arizona. Still, that number was topped by the 19,900 Arizonans who decamped to the Lone Star State.
Those supposed political factors are speculation, of course. People move for all sorts of reasons — including better weather.
More than 6,700 of the new Arizonans last year came from Michigan and almost 5,700 from Minnesota.
Yet, bitter winters apparently were not a deterrent to everyone. Some 4,000 Arizonans decided they would rather live in the Great Lakes State. And almost 4,800 decided they want to be in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Better fishing?
A lot of it comes down to people going where the jobs are.
Figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2023 show the number of jobs in Arizona grew by 2.1%. That was enough to rank it No. 12 in the nation for job growth.
By contrast, New York was fifth from the bottom at less than half that figure.
So it’s probably no surprise that more than 7,600 New Yorkers packed up and moved to Arizona last year. Yet about 3,500 Arizonans went the other way, perhaps drawn to the bright lights of Broadway.
Another big contributor to Arizona’s growing population was Oregon. Almost 10,500 of its residents moved to the Grand Canyon State. That compares with 7,144 Arizonans who went the other way.
And, speaking of the Northwest, more than 12,800 current Arizonans came from Washington versus 10,675 who went the other way.
There were places besides Texas that apparently were bigger lures for Arizonans than the other way around.
For example, Arizona picked up 1,373 folks from Alabama last year. Yet nearly 4,500 residents here decided they’d rather be there.
More Arizonans moved to Colorado than residents of that state came here. Ditto Kentucky and Nevada. And both North and South Carolina, which have growing economies, also attracted more Arizonans than those who came here from there.
For some reason, the number of Arizonans who left for West Virginia is 22 times higher than those who left the Mountain State to live here.
Still, Arizona ranks No. 14 in overall state population.
While the latest Census figures are just for 2023, other statistics from the federal agency show these migration patterns aren’t isolated.
Out of more than 7.43 million Arizonans, just 2.91 million were born here. That’s less than 40%.
By contrast, nearly 1.1 million current residents were born in a foreign country, about one out of every five Arizonans. The Census Bureau has no breakdown of their legal status.
Domestically, more than 768,000 current residents were born in California. Put another way, out of any random group of 10 Arizonans you meet on the street, one is from “Cali.”
Our state has more than 177,000 New York-born residents and 155,000 from the Lone Star State.
Other big contributors to Arizona’s population include more than 138,00 from Michigan, 120,000 from Washington, close to 100,000 from Minnesota and about 98,000 from Pennsylvania.
