Major American metros like Chicago, New York and Los Angeles are seeing more than 100 people leave every day, but Sun Belt cities like Atlanta, Phoenix Orlando and Tampa are welcoming folks with open arms.
That’s according to a new analysis by Bloomberg, which used census data to rank the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas based on their net migration data, between July 1, 2016 and July 1, 2017, as a percentage of total base population as of July 2016.
Domestic migration refers to people moving within the country (e.g. someone moving from the Big Apple to the Windy City). International migration, including natives previously living outside of the country, refers to people moving to and from the United States. The figures exclude the natural increase in population, which is the difference between the number of live births and the number of deaths.
According to the analysis, Tampa is welcoming 149 migrants per day. That’s the highest rate of migration in the Eastern U.S. and third highest in the country.
But don’t hurry up and try to build a wall, there, G.I. Joe — according to Bloomberg, relocations can lead to large skill and investment transfers; that's good news for a city that ranked low for talent acquisition in the Tampa Bay Partnership’s recent Regional Competitiveness Report, which measured the Tampa Bay area against 19 similar metro areas.
“People who choose to relocate to other parts of the country are taking their talents with them,” the Bloomberg analysis said. “States and local governments make a large investment in educating people and many people further this by investing in a college education, so when one moves, a large investment transfer is occurring.”
See how Tampa’s migration numbers stack up against other cities by visiting Bloomberg and crunch through more data by visiting that aforementioned Regional Competitiveness Report.
