More people moved out of Kansas than into the state in 2016

About 6 in 10 residential moves last year were outbound from Kansas rather than inbound. In Missouri, the outbound/inbound split was about half and half.

New numbers from Atlas Van Lines and United Van Lines showed that both states followed a general Midwest trend in 2016: More people moved out than in.

For the Kansas City metropolitan area, which includes both sides of the state line, outbound moves nearly equaled inbound.

But, according to the United data, there were more moves into the Missouri side of the metro (55.3 percent) than into the Kansas side of the metro (46.8 percent).

The moving companies’ annual migration studies showed differences in some results based on their respective businesses.

United, for example, ranked Kansas as No. 6 nationally on its “most moved from” list of states. In the Atlas report, Kansas didn’t fall into its top-10 outbound list.

Another sample difference: Atlas classified South Dakota as an outbound state while United said it was its top inbound state.

The migration conclusions were basically aligned, though, for Kansas and Missouri.

Atlas said 56 percent of its Kansas moves were outbound. United, which includes the Mayflower line, said 60 percent of its Kansas moves were outbound.

For Missouri, Atlas said 51 percent of its moves were outbound, while United recorded a 52 percent outbound log.

Nationally, mountain and Western states were inbound leaders last year. Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada and Alaska were among top gainers.

“We are seeing more retirees than ever decide to relocate, and as a result, new retirement hubs are popping up in Western and Southern states,” said Michael Stoll, an economist in the Department of Public Policy at UCLA.

That retiree trend overshadowed another in 2016 — millennials moving into urban centers in the Midwest and Northeast, Stoll noted.

That millennial movement is one reason why the Midwest showed an uptick in work-related transfers. Six in 10 moves into or out of Missouri and Kansas last year were related to job changes.

The United report said that across the country, “nearly one in five of those who moved in 2016 moved to be closer to family.”

Atlas said last year represented a slight drop in the total number of interstate moves.

“The moving industry as a whole has contracted annually over the last five years,” noted Jack Griffen, CEO of Atlas World Group. We are cautiously optimistic that we will see an uptick in 2017 for all types of moves.”

This story was originally published January 4, 2017 at 10:27 AM.