More people loaded their belongings into U-Haul trucks and moved to Alabama last year than moved away. In fact, Alabama ranked inside the top 10 in 2019 in terms of U-Haul net gains, according to the do-it-yourself truck rental company.

Alabama has seen very little population growth over the past 10 years, and hasn’t sniffed the top 10 in U-Haul’s list - until all of the sudden last year. The 2019 U-Haul Migration Trends report, released this month, shows Alabama ranked no. 6 for net arrivals, up from no. 42 in 2018.

That 36-spot jump is the largest swing in the country.

Alabama’s rise, while sudden and surprising, is led by a handful of cities that have been steadily growing for years. But now two of those cities find themselves among the tops in the nation for new arrivals.

According to the company, Alabama’s migration growth is led by Auburn-Opelika and Huntsville, both of which were inside the top 25 growth cities nationally. Within Alabama, they are followed by Foley, Gulf Shores and Troy. Hoover, Dothan, Daphne, Prattville and Decatur also saw increases in net arrivals.

Overall, the South is well represented at the top of the list. The South, anchored by Texas and Florida, is the fastest-growing region in the United States. Washington was the only non-Southern state to find itself inside the top six for net arrivals.

Florida was the no. 1 U-Haul growth state, jumping Texas for the top spot for the first time in four years. Texas sits at no. 2 for 2019, followed by North Carolina and then South Carolina.

“Growth States are calculated by the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks entering a state versus leaving that state during a calendar year,” the company explained in a press release earlier this month.

In Alabama, the 36-spot jump on the list equates to a 2 percent increase of one-way U-Haul truck arrivals since 2018, according to the company. That goes along with a 1 percent decrease in departures. 50.3 percent of all Alabama U-Haul traffic in 2019 was arrivals.

This metric isn’t exactly scientific - just because Alabama is seeing more U-Hauls doesn’t mean the state will see a huge overall population increase, as the Census estimates most counties in Alabama are losing population each year. And this data is based only on U-Haul rentals, which captures only a fraction of the moving population.

And the sample size is somewhat small. According to USA Today, roughly 40 million Americans moved at least once last year. U-Hauls migration data is composed of more than 2 million one-way U-Haul truck transactions.

“Although U-Haul migration trends do not correlate directly to population or economic growth, the Company’s growth data is an effective gauge of how well cities and states are attracting and maintaining residents,” the company said in an Alabama-specific press release on Jan. 6.

But the numbers are interesting nonetheless. Florida and Texas, which top the U-Haul list, are among the fastest-growing states in the country. The Carolinas, too, are growing rapidly, along with Washington, which rounded out the top 5 on U-Haul’s list. That leaves Alabama as the odd state out.

Illinois, the fastest shrinking state in the country in terms of total population, also saw the largest U-Haul exodus. California and Michigan were also near the bottom of the list.

Here’s the full list of growth states for 2019, with 2018 ranking in parentheses.

1. Florida (2)

2. Texas (1)

3. North Carolina (24)

4. South Carolina (3)

5. Washington (29)

6. Alabama (42)

7. Ohio (15)

8. Utah (4)

9. Indiana (26)

10. Vermont (7)

11. Idaho (5)

12. Tennessee (8)

13. Missouri (12)

14. Oklahoma (40)

15. Minnesota (37)

16. Georgia (35)

17. Alaska (31)

18. Kansas (32)

19. Nebraska (18)

20. Arizona (23)

21. Delaware (11)

22. West Virginia (17)

23. Arkansas (22)

24.Nevada (25)

25. Mississippi (30)

26. Montana (34)

27. Wyoming (33)

28. South Dakota (27)

29. Oregon (14)

30. Iowa (41)

31. New Hampshire (9)

32. North Dakota (36)

33. Maine (10)

34. Connecticut (21)

35. Rhode Island (38)

36. New Mexico (19)

37. Kentucky (45)

38. District of Columbia (20)

39. Virginia (28)

40. Louisiana (47)

41. Wisconsin (13)

42. Colorado (16)

43. New York (39)

44. New Jersey (43)

45. Maryland (6)

46. Pennsylvania (44)

47. Massachusetts (46)

48. Michigan (49)

49. California (48)

50. Illinois (50)

Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Email Ramsey Archibald at rarchibald@al.com, and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald.