The Valley has been a popular relocation destination for Americans over the past five years. New data from the US Census Bureau estimates 151,000 people per year relocated to Maricopa County from outside of Arizona between 2017 and 2021. An estimated 23,000 people each year moved here from abroad in the same time frame. This comes out to approximately 900,000 new residents in that five-year time frame.
About 184,000 people, or one in every five people who relocated to the Valley between 2017 and 2021, came from California. The state with the next highest number of movers was Washington at just over 50,000. Texas, Illinois, and Colorado rounded out the top five states with a range of 35,000 to 48,000.
Asian countries provided the largest population of movers to the Valley from outside the United States. An estimated 39,000 people moved here from the world’s largest and most populous continent. The next largest region of relocators was Central America with about 26,000 individuals followed by 18,000 people from Canada and 15,000 from Europe. Africa, South America, and U.S. Island Territories all provided fewer than 4,000 new residents per year each to Maricopa County.
Recent census data only provides estimates at the state level for those moving out of Arizona.
The most popular destinations for those moving out of the state include:
1. Clark County, Nevada: 27,000
2. San Diego County, California: 25,000
3. Los Angeles County, California: 25,000
4. King County, Washington: 20,000
5. Bexar County, Texas: 13,000
Outside the of the Valley, people moving from California to some of Arizona’s lesser populated counties took all top five spots. The largest group of movers, 40,000, went to Pima County. They were followed by Mohave, Yuma, Yavapai, and Pinal counties.
