IRS migration data, explained

The IRS builds the data from year-to-year address changes on individual income tax returns. A file labeled 2022 to 2023 compares the address on the 2022 return with the address on the 2023 return. Because almost every working household files a return, it captures internal migration at a detail no survey matches: every county, every year, with the income attached.

Every flow reports three counts. Returns approximate the number of households that moved. Exemptions approximate the number of individuals, since a return claims an exemption for each person it covers. Adjusted gross income (AGI) is the total income reported on those returns, in nominal dollars. On this site these appear as net households, net people, and net income on every state and county page.

The data is directional. Inflow is the filers who arrived and where they came from. Outflow is the filers who left and where they went. Net migration is inflow minus outflow. A positive net means a place gained filers over the year; a negative net means it lost them. Getting this direction right is the most common mistake made with this data, so every figure on this site is checked against a known flow before it is loaded.

The IRS publishes a new filing-year pair each year, running about two years behind the present, and its series reaches back to 1991. This site currently visualizes the 2011–2012 through 2022–2023 filing years. When a new year is released, the biggest state and county movers are written up on the what changed page.

Take any place and ask three questions: did it gain or lose households on net, how large is that against its population, and where did the largest flows go. A net gain of a few thousand households means one thing in a small county and another in a large one, so this site also shows net people per 1,000 residents for a fair comparison. Open a state page to see the pattern: the headline nets, the top origins and destinations, and the two-way churn with each partner.

The data covers tax filers only, so non-filers, who include many lower-income and some elderly people, are not represented. It records that a filer moved, never why, so it cannot attribute a move to taxes, jobs, or anything else. And AGI is nominal and is not a measure of economic gain or loss. The full methodology covers disclosure suppression, series breaks, and how the headline totals are built.

• The national mapHover any state, drill into its counties.
• RankingsBiggest gainers and losers, single year or cumulative.
• By income bracketWhich states gain and lose earners, by AGI bracket.
• What changedBiggest movers in the latest release.
• CompareTwo states or counties side by side.
• Vote and migrationThe 2024 result and net migration on one county map.
• MethodologyFull caveats, sources, and definitions.

What is IRS migration data?

It is a public dataset from the IRS Statistics of Income program that tracks how many tax filers moved between U.S. counties and states from one year to the next, and the income that moved with them. The IRS builds it from year-to-year address changes on individual income tax returns.

What does the data measure?

Three things per flow: the number of returns filed, which approximates households that moved; the number of personal exemptions, which approximates individuals; and the total adjusted gross income (AGI) associated with those returns, in nominal dollars.

What do inflow, outflow, and net migration mean?

Inflow is the filers who moved into a place and where they came from. Outflow is the filers who left and where they went. Net migration is inflow minus outflow: positive means the place gained filers on net, negative means it lost them.

How often is the data updated, and how far back does it go?

The IRS publishes a new filing-year pair each year, about two years behind the present. The IRS series runs back to 1991. This site currently visualizes the modern county and state files.

Does the data show why people moved?

No. It records that filers changed address between two tax years. It carries no information about motive, so it cannot show whether taxes, jobs, housing, family, or anything else drove a move.

Is net AGI migration the same as economic gain or loss?

No. It is the reported income of the filers who moved, nothing more. When someone leaves a place, the job they held often stays and is refilled, so net AGI migration should not be read as income lost or gained by an economy.

Is the data free to use?

Yes. It is a work of the U.S. government and is in the public domain. This site presents it with source attribution and a full methodology.