A new report released by U-Haul shows that Oklahoma continues to attract movers from across the nation, attracting more domestic migration than nearly three in four states.

The U-Haul Growth Index is compiled from more than 2.5 million annual one-way transactions across the U.S. and Canada, ranking states by their net gain (or loss) of customers who rented a one-way truck, trailer, or U-Box moving containers in one state and dropped off their equipment in another state.

Oklahoma ranked 14th-best in the report, down slightly from its 11th-place ranking in last year’s U-Haul report.

In recent years, numerous reports have found that Oklahoma is among the top state destinations for citizens moving out of other states, with Oklahoma consistently ranked among the top 15 states, and even in the top 10. Those transplants have increased Oklahoma’s net adjusted gross income by more than $1 billion, based on Internal Revenue Service data. 

Only two of the six states that border Oklahoma did better in this year’s U-Haul report—Texas, which has no income tax and ranked first nationally, and Arkansas, which ranked one spot ahead of Oklahoma and imposes a lower income tax than Oklahoma. While Oklahoma’s top income tax rate was cut to 4.5 percent starting this year, the top rate in Arkansas is an even lower 3.9 percent. Oklahoma’s rate is scheduled to gradually decline to zero as growth revenue allows in future years.

Texas and Florida topped the list on the U-Haul Growth report for 2025, while California ranked last with the greatest out-migration number for the sixth consecutive year.

Texas has been the number one U-Haul growth state for seven of the last 10 years. Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee have been in the top five states for three years in a row.

Along with California, the bottom five states this year included Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.

Political climate, particularly lower taxes, appears to be driving a significant amount of migration between states.

“Blue-to-red state migration, a hotly debated political topic that became more pronounced after the pandemic of 2020, continues to be a discernible trend,” the U-Haul report noted. “Seven of the top 10 growth states currently feature Republican governors, and nine of those states went red in the last presidential election. Conversely, nine of the bottom 10 growth states feature Democrat governors, and seven of those states went blue in the last presidential election.”

“We continue to find that life circumstances—marriage, children, a death in the family, college, jobs, and other events—dictate the need for most moves,” John “J.T.” Taylor, U-Haul International president, said in a released statement. “But other factors can be important to people who are looking to change their surroundings. In-migration states are often appealing to those customers.”

In a separate release, Americans for Tax Reform noted that the U-Haul report “shows Americans continue to move away from high-tax states in favor of low-tax and no-income-tax states.”

Americans for Tax Reform noted that three of the top four states attracting movers have no personal income tax: Texas, Florida, and Tennessee.

In contrast, California is ranked dead last in the U-Haul index while imposing the highest top personal income tax rate in the nation at 13.3 percent.

Americans for Tax Reform noted that the 10 best-ranked states in the U-Haul index “have significantly lower personal income tax rates than the index’s 10 worst-ranked states.”

The average top state personal income tax rate in the 10 best-ranked states was 3.5 percent, compared to an average rate of 7.2 percent in the 10 worst-ranked states, which is double the average rate of states at the top of the list.

The contrast is even starker when comparing the top five states to the bottom five states.

The top five states in the U-Haul report have an average top state personal income tax rate of only 2 percent, while the bottom five states have an average rate of 9.8 percent—nearly five times greater.

In a statement, Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, noted, “The U-Haul annual report lets everyone see which states are failing and which are succeeding as judged by actual Americans.”

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