Arkansas moves up on movers’ lists

Recent reports from UHaul and United Van Lines show Arkansas rising on national lists of destinations for movers.

But in one report, U-Haul’s Growth Index — which compiled moves according to the net gain of one-way travel — the number of U-Haul trailers and trucks bound for Arkansas actually decreased by 6% last year because outbound moves also fell by 12%, giving the state a net gain.

U-Haul and United Van Lines year-end data measuring the percentage of moves into and out of the state placed Arkansas 4th and 17th respectively in national rankings.

United Van Lines’ Annual Movers Study showed that 60.2% of moves were into Arkansas compared with 39.8% being outbound from the state.

Eily Cummings, vice president of corporate communications for United Van Lines, said Arkansas’ inbound growth was the highest recorded by the mover since 1978.

“Since the pandemic it has been a more inbound state than outbound, it used to be more balanced,” she said.

Cummings said the number of Arkansas moves measured in the study was just under 1,200, and the total number of moves nationally was over 100,000.

Alison Wright, data center division head for the Arkansas Economic Development Institute, said while the data from the moving studies show an increase of moves into the state, it is just a small sample of moving companies and doesn’t include people who move without hiring a company to help.

Wright shared U.S. Census data estimates from 2022 to 2023, which ranked Arkansas 10th in net migration increase, accounting for people who move in and out of the state. The Census Bureau estimates the state’s population of about 3.06 million increased by just over 21,000 between 2022 and 2023.

The growth in the state’s population comes mostly from domestic moves, with 18,106 people predicted to

vhave moved into the state. The estimates also show 4,096 people expected to move to Arkansas from another country.

The Census data includes a more comprehensive data set of people moving into the state, according to Wright, since it measures the total number of people moving and not just moves counted by moving companies.

According to the U-Haul study, Fayetteville and Springdale were the top growth cities in the state, with Bentonville, Centerton, Hot Springs and Mountain Home also having net gains.

Fayetteville and Little Rock both ranked high on United Van Lines data, and Cummings said Fayetteville narrowly missed out on the top 25 with 61% of moves inbound.

“Definitely people are moving to robust and smaller metro areas … where there is enough going on in them but you don’t have some of the negatives that might bring from larger metropolitan areas,” she said.

Those moving to Arkansas primarily came from Texas, as well as California, Florida and Illinois, according to Cummings.

United Van Lines provided additional information on the demographics of the moves it completed to Arkansas, including a reason for moving and age.

Moving for a job was the biggest reason for both inbound and outbound moves, at 32% and 60% respectively. Cummings said that this has shifted since the pandemic, which before 2020, moving for a job frequently made up 50% of moves in and out of the state.

“That doesn’t mean there are fewer jobs in Arkansas, it just means the No. 1 or 2 reasons people are moving in isn’t necessarily jobs,” she said.

According to United Van Lines, people between 55 and 64-years-old made up the majority of inbound moves at 27.4%, with people 65 and older narrowly behind at 26.2%.

Outbound moves were a tie for both 18 to 34 year olds and 35 to 44 year olds both seeing 24.1%.

While Arkansas is seeing growth from net positive migration, Wright said the state is seeing a negative natural change in population, meaning there are more deaths than births.

“If we didn’t have people moving in then we would not see population increase,” she said.

Wright said this is a national problem with the large population and aging baby boomers.