Study: R.I. moves ‘balanced’ in 2016

RHODE ISLAND had an almost even number of moves into and out of the state in 2016, according to a study from Atlas Van Lines. / COURTESY ATLAS VAN LINES
RHODE ISLAND had an almost even number of moves into and out of the state in 2016, according to a study from Atlas Van Lines. / COURTESY ATLAS VAN LINES

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island had nearly the same amount of moves into and out of the state in 2016, according to Atlas Van Lines’ annual migration study.

The Ocean State is considered “balanced” because 50.1 percent of moves were into the state, Atlas said this week. There were 237 moves into the state last year, and 236 moves out of the state, for a total of 473.

In 2015, Rhode Island was considered an inbound state as more than 55 percent of moves were into the state. In the three prior years, 2012-14, Rhode Island was considered balanced.

Nationwide in 2016, the total number of moves fell, to 75,427 compared with 77,705 in 2015. Idaho and Wyoming saw the highest amount of inbound and outbound traffic respectively, at 63 percent each.

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Among New England states, New Hampshire was 10th highest for inbound moves at 55.1 percent, while Connecticut was sixth highest for outbound moves at 58.9 percent.
For the fifth consecutive year, states with the highest number of total moves were California (14,995), Texas (11,973) and Florida (10,231).

“The moving industry as a whole has contracted annually over the last five years, but we have been fortunate to see a consistent increase in moves during that time until this year,” Jack Griffin, CEO and vice chairman of Atlas World Group, said in a statement. “We are cautiously optimistic that we will see an uptick in 2017 for all types of moves, but we are aware of the economic headwinds that lie ahead of us.”

Atlas said each state’s status is determined by its threshold value, the total number of shipments multiplied by 0.55 (in a state with 100 moves, at least 55 must be outgoing to be considered outbound). All other states or provinces in which outbound or inbound numbers fail to exceed the threshold are classified as balanced.

More information can be found at https://www.atlasvanlines.com/migration-patterns/.

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