Report · 2024 survey · Released January 21, 2026

Where Idaho newcomers lived last year, 2026 release.

Most people who moved were already in Idaho. The 2024 survey estimates that 188,736 people, plus or minus 10,772, changed homes and stayed in the state. A smaller group, 72,817 people, plus or minus 6,331, lived in a different state one year earlier. Only that smaller group has a previous state. The Census Bureau released these tables on January 21, 2026. The survey cannot name a county. This is not the IRS file of tax returns.

See where the smaller group lived · See who left

What the two numbers mean

The survey sorted everyone living in Idaho into four groups. The two move numbers are two of those groups. They are not two answers to the question of how many people moved here. Using the published 90 percent margins, the low end of the in-state move is 177,964 and the high end of the group from another state is 79,148. The smaller number is still less than half the larger one.

The four estimates add to 1,979,218 people age 1 and over. The margin on that total is ± 2,367. The row margins do not add up to it.

Same home means they did not move. Moved and stayed in Idaho is the larger move, and the survey stops there. It cannot say whether the move crossed a county line, so it cannot say Boise, Meridian, or Coeur d'Alene. A different state is the smaller move. The next table splits only that group. Abroad means Puerto Rico, the U.S. Island Areas, a foreign country, or at sea. Abroad is not inside either move number.

Last year means one year before the interview. Interviews were spread across 2024, so it is not one calendar day, and it is not 2025 or 2026. The 2026 in the title is the year these tables were released.

Where the 72,817 lived

These are the previous states for the smaller group only, ranked by the estimate. The margin of error is the Census Bureau's 90 percent margin. A higher row is not a finding by itself. Washington's estimate is 17,837, plus or minus 3,554. California's is 15,385, plus or minus 2,919. On the Census test, that gap is too small to call. Both are larger than Utah on that test. The test compares the gap with the two margins. It does not use the IRS file, and it does not compare these states with the 188,736 who stayed in Idaho.

An estimate of 0 is a published zero, not a missing state, and the margin is still shown. The survey does not publish an estimate for Arkansas, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Vermont, and West Virginia. Those five are not zeros. The rows below are not added up to make the 72,817. That total is the Census supplemental estimate. This table cannot name a county.

Another 8,275 people, plus or minus 1,768, lived abroad. That group is separate from both the 188,736 who stayed in Idaho and the 72,817 who lived in another state. Abroad includes Puerto Rico, the U.S. Island Areas, a foreign country, and at sea. The foreign-country row is 8,112, plus or minus 1,745. It is not the whole abroad total. The U.S. Island Areas row is 163, plus or minus 167. Puerto Rico is a published zero, plus or minus 198. Movers from Puerto Rico are not inside the 72,817.

Who left

This is a third number. 60,351 people who lived in Idaho one year earlier, plus or minus 6,848, were living in a different state at the time of the survey. It is not part of the 188,736 who stayed, and it is not a rival count of the 72,817 who arrived. Do not subtract any of these from each other and call the difference growth. The departure total does not include people who moved to Puerto Rico.

Utah has the largest estimate, 8,393, plus or minus 2,579. Washington and California are close enough that the survey does not separate the three. The flow table publishes 47 destination rows, including the District of Columbia. These are the eight largest. Mississippi, Nebraska, and Rhode Island are not published, and they are not zeros.

Methodology

Published by Preston Thatcher Yates. The figures are the Census Bureau's published estimates. They were not recomputed from survey responses. The page leads with people who moved and stayed in Idaho because that is the larger group of movers. The state ranking uses only the smaller group, people who lived in a different state one year earlier. Those two figures are separate rows. They are not two measurements of one flow.

Pairs come from Table 1 of the 2024 state-to-state migration workbook. The Idaho totals come from Table 2, for people whose current residence is Idaho, and from Table 3, for people whose residence one year ago was Idaho. The state rows were not added up to replace those totals.

The universe is the population 1 year and over. The survey asks where the person lived one year before the interview. Interviews are spread across 2024, so the earlier residence is not one calendar day. The margin of error is the 90 percent margin printed in the workbook. An "N" in the workbook means the sample was too small to publish. This page leaves those states off the table and names them. An estimate of 0 is printed as zero.

The Census Bureau released these state-to-state tables on January 21, 2026. They are the newest year on its state-to-state migration page. A move in 2025 is not in them. The survey year, 2024, is later than the IRS filing years 2022–2023. The IRS file was released later, on March 19, 2026, and it is a different count. Where people moved to Idaho from counts tax returns and can name a county. This page does not print those counts, and that page does not print these estimates.

What this report is not

• Not the IRS Statistics of Income migration file. A return there approximates a household. A person here is a survey estimate.
• Not a county or city count. The survey names the state of residence one year ago. It does not name Boise, Meridian, or any other city.
• Not a count of driver licenses surrendered in Idaho.
• Not a net population change. The in-state move, the arrivals from another state, and the departures are separate estimates. This page does not subtract them.
• Not a ranking that ignores the margin of error. Washington leads the arrival table on the estimate alone.

Sources

• Census Bureau release, January 21, 2026
• State-to-state migration flows, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates
• Census guidance for state-to-state migration flows

Suggested citation: U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, state-to-state migration flows, released January 21, 2026.

You may quote these figures and reproduce the tables if you name Data Idaho and link to this page. The estimates are the Census Bureau's. Cite the 2024 American Community Survey state-to-state migration flows.

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