U-Haul Growth Index: Newsom's California Dead Last For Six Straight Years
Moving company U-Haul has released its annual migration ranking, which continues to show a sustained outflow from high-tax, crime-ridden, Democrat-run states toward lower-tax states where law and order are cherished.
Right off the bat, the report's authors note that "Florida ranks 2nd for net gain of one-way customers; California last for sixth year in a row."
U-Haul just released its annual "Growth Index" for all 50 states. For the 6th straight year, California is ranked 50th. We have the highest rate of people moving out versus moving in.
— Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) January 6, 2026
Newsom has turned the greatest state in the country into the most popular state to leave.
The U-Haul Growth Index compares one-way truck and trailer rentals into a state versus out of a state, allowing researchers to calculate net migration, which reflects relocation trends nationwide.
This real-time tracker shows that Texas reclaimed the title of the No. 1 growth state for the seventh time in a decade. Florida ranked No. 2, followed by North Carolina at No. 3, Tennessee at No. 4, and South Carolina at No. 5. The common denominator among these states is that politicians are considered more based and grounded in reality than the far-left activists running blue states into the ground (cough, cough Tim Walz).
Conversely, the behavior-based migration indicator shows that blue states such as California ranked dead last - in other words, more people left than arrived. Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Maryland also landed at the bottom of the list. The common denominator among these states is that their political leadership focuses on being left-wing activists rather than proper stewardship of their respective states.
"Blue-to-red state migration, a hotly debated political topic that became more pronounced after the pandemic of 2020, continues to be a discernable trend," U-Haul wrote in the report.