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Years ago, much to the chagrin of Montanans, Coloradans and other Rocky Mountain residents, Californians began migrating away from the golden shores in favor of smaller towns in the mountains. It turns out something similar is afoot in Arkansas—related to Texans.

The Lone Star State is where most new Arkansas residents are coming from. Others are arriving from California, Florida and Illinois.

The paper reports that U-Haul and United Van Lines show Arkansas rising on national lists of destinations for movers. While the number of moving trucks headed for Arkansas decreased by 6 percent last year, outbound moves fell by 12 percent, giving Arkansas a net gain in new residents.

The movement places Arkansas at No. 4 in the country for moves into the state and No. 17 in moves out of the state.

Alison Wright, data center division head for the Arkansas Economic Development Institute, said the studies are just a small sample and don’t include people who move without hiring a company to help.

However, U.S. Census data estimates from 2022 to 2023 back up the studies. Those estimates ranked Arkansas 10th in net migration increase and estimates the state’s population of 3.06 million increased by just over 21,000 between 2022 and 2023.

Most growth comes from domestic moves, with 18,106 people predicted to move into the state. However, the estimates also show roughly 4,000 people moving to Arkansas from another country.

Back to the U-Haul study: Fayetteville and Springdale were the top growth cities with Bentonville, Centerton, Hot Springs and Mountain Home also showing net gains. Fayetteville and Little Rock both ranked high on United Van Lines data; Eily Cummings, a vice president for United Van Lines, said Fayetteville narrowly missed out on the top 25 with 61 percent 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 continued.

As you might expect, moving for a job is the primary reason for both inbound and outbound migration.

But the Natural State’s natural change in population is not as positive. More people die in Arkansas than are born every year. Said Cummings, “If we didn’t have people moving, then we would not see population increase.”

Put out the welcome mat.