Every year, the IRS releases information about the adjusted gross income (AGI) on the individual income tax returns of filers who moved. These returns may have varying numbers of dependents, and the migration data include both in-state moves, where the county of the filer’s address changed, and relocations to a different state. From this, we can get a glimpse into where the money is flowing.

The heat map shows the average AGI of movers from the state on the y-axis to the state on the x-axis, broken into deciles. Orange shades correspond to wealthier filers, and purple to poorer filers, with the median around $51k. The bar graphs show the weighted average AGI for a given state, based only on interstate mover data; there are many more intrastate movers, and these data would have drowned out the signal from the state-to-state moves. So the bar graph on the top represents average AGI of filers moving to the states labeled on the x-axis, and the bar graph on the right corresponds to filers leaving the states on the y-axis.

On the bottom right, I’ve labeled the top and bottom five values you get from subtracting the values in the top bar graph from the values in the right bar graph. Many people retire to states like Florida, Nevada, and Arizona, so it’s not surprising to see that average AGI is higher for folks moving to these states than it is for those who are leaving. Some of the wealthiest states like New York and Connecticut have the lowest values for this metric, perhaps because people accumulate significant wealth there and then move away. There are also some surprises, like the fact that wealthy people are moving to Wyoming. Overall, the average AGI of people moving within the same state is about $10k less than those moving out-of-state, which is logical given that out-of-state moves tend to be more expensive.

Data source: https://www.irs.gov/uac/soi-tax-stats-migration-data-2014-2015