How many people in the United States are moving to the Golden State and how many are moving to other states? Newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2023 provides a glimpse into these numbers.

The statistics released Oct. 17 showed that an estimated 422,000 people moved to California from other states and an estimated 690,000 moved to other states in 2023. This resulted in a net negative domestic migration of 268,000.

The top five destination states for Californians were Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, and Florida, with people moving to these states making up around 39 percent of the domestic migration out of California.

The top five states people left behind when moving to California were Texas, New York, Washington, Nevada, and Oregon.

The data also showed that of the other three most populated states in the U.S., New York state also had a net loss in domestic migration, while Florida and Texas both had gains in domestic migration.

In comparison, for the year 2022, census data showed around 475,800 people moved to California from other states, while 817,700 people moved out of state, indicating that domestic migration into and out of the Golden State slowed slightly since the previous year.

In 2021, California saw 433,400 move into the state, while around 841,000 people moved to another state.

Immigration Data

The census bureau data also show that although California lost more people to other states in 2023, it had a higher number of immigrants—an estimated 315,700 people from foreign countries—moving in last year, legally or illegally.

More than a million people moved from abroad into the four states with the highest population in the U.S. in 2023, including California.

In 2022, 303,100 people moved to California from abroad, and 188,700 people moved to the state from other countries in 2021.

California leaders earlier this year pointed to immigration as an important factor in California’s population growth.

The California Department of Finance reported in April, “For the first time since 2020, California has once again experienced positive population growth in 2023,” and one reason was the rebound of “foreign legal immigration.”

California’s population grew by more than 67,000 in 2023 to 39.1 million and the rebound of foreign legal immigration brought California “a net gain of 114,200 persons in 2023 compared to 90,300 in 2022.”

The department cautioned against comparing its numbers to those of the Census Bureau, since they refer to different points in time.

The state Department of Finance also stated, “Net domestic migration no longer offsets the population gains from natural increase and international migration.”