By Illinois Radio Network/Cole Lauterbach
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois remains at, or near, the top of states with the highest percentage of people leaving compared to arriving, according to data from the trucks that do the hauling.
A number of the nation’s largest moving companies have released their annual statistics on the trucks that move families from one state to another. Both United Van Lines and Atlas Van Lines say that more than 60 percent of the trucks crossing state lines are leaving Illinois, more than nearly any other state.
Eily Cummings, director of Corporate Communications with UniGroup, parent company of United Van Lines, said Illinois’ outbound rate has been consistently one of the highest in the nation in recent years even though it fell one notch to 49th on their state rankings.
“It has a 65.9 percent outbound rate so it’s even higher than the 2017 number,” she said.
Many cities, Cummings said, have higher outbound rates – Champaign and Peoria each see more than 70 percent of their moves outbound rather than inbound.
United breaks down their movers demographically. Illinois’ inbound customers look similar to their outbound customers, generally at or nearing retirement age and making a considerable amount more than the average state income. This may be more indicative of the clientele, Cummings said.
Do-it-yourself moving company U-Haul sees many more middle-income movers. In 2018, the company saw many more departures from Illinois than arrivals, with the state coming in 50th for three of the last four years. Despite this, U-Haul Illinois president Aaron Freeman remains optimistic about the growth he sees in Central Illinois.
“Springfield has done a tremendous job at economic growth and attracting economic prosperity and commerce,” he said, adding that 80 percent of their business is county-to-county migration instead of out-of-state moves.
U.S. Census Data estimates that Springfield lost 900 people in 2017. An estimated 114,000 Illinoisans left the state in the 12 months ending last July.
