Texas enjoyed the largest net in-migration of any state last year, while California (once again) suffered the largest net loss of residents, results of the latest annual U-Haul Growth Index released Monday reveal. The Growth Index, based on 2.5 million transactions, “ranks states by their net gain (or loss) of customers who rented a one-way truck, trailer or U-Box® moving containers in one state and dropped off their equipment in another state,” the company explained in a press release. Texas claimed the top growth title for the seventh time in the past 10 years, after ranking second behind South Carolina in 2024. Meanwhile, California had the most net out-migration for the sixth year in a row. “Blue-to-red state migration, a hotly debated political topic that became more pronounced after the pandemic of 2020, continues to be a discernable trend,” the U-Haul report notes. Indeed, of the 10 states with the most net in-migration, seven have Republican governors, while nine of the 10 states with the worst net-migration have Democrat governors: Texas - R Florida - R North Carolina - D Tennessee - R South Carolina - R Washington - D Arizona - D Idaho - R Alabama - R Georgia - R … Michigan - D Connecticut - D Ohio - R Pennsylvania - D Maryland - D Massachusetts - D New York - D New Jersey - D Illinois - D California - D A state’s tax policy also appears to be correlated to migration, analysis by Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) suggests: “Three of the top four states attracting movers have no personal income tax: Texas, Florida, and Tennessee. “California is ranked dead last in the index and imposes the highest top personal income tax rate in the nation at 13.3%.” What’s more, the average top personal tax rate for the 10 most-growth states (3.5%) is more than twice the average for bottom 10 states (7.2%). Additionally, whether or not a state requires workers to join unions appears to be connected to net-migration results, as nine of the top 10 states have Right-to-Work laws, while all of the bottom 10 have forced unionism, ATR analysis shows.