TEXAS, USA — No other state in the United States had more one-way U-Haul trucks entering in 2022 than Texas did, according to a recent annual U-Haul report.
And this is now the second year in a row that's been the case.
For both 2021 and 2022, Texas and Florida have been the top two states for this U-Haul statistic. For 2022, South Carolina came in third and North Carolina came in fourth.
Texas is the No. 1 growth state for the fifth time since 2016. Florida, which ranks second, has been a top-three growth state seven years in a row.
“The 2022 trends in migration followed very similar patterns to 2021 with Texas, Florida, the Carolinas and the Southwest continuing to see solid growth,” U-Haul International president John Taylor said.
The way U-Haul calculates this statistic is by looking at the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks entering a state compared to leaving during a calendar year. The data is compiled from more than two million one-way U-Haul truck customer transactions that occur every year.
Do-it-yourself movers arriving in Texas accounted for nearly 50.3% of all one-way U-Haul truck traffic in and out of Texas.
“People are still flocking to Texas,” U-Haul Company of Northeast Dallas president Zane Rowland said.“The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is attracting new companies every day. Businesses are relocating to DFW and Texas because we’re a cost-effective option.”
For the third consecutive year, California came in last in terms of the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks. Illinois was also second to last all three years.
At one point in 2021, U-Haul said it ran out of enough vehicles to meet the customer demand for "outbound equipment."
“Texas is great because you have a low the cost of living, no state income tax, and deregulated energy costs,” U-Haul Company of Northeast Houston president Robert Abidin said. “Texas is also the energy capital of the U.S. We’re home to every major industry. Anything you’re looking for in Texas, you can find in Texas.”
Texas’s leading growth cities include Richardson, Missouri City, and Conroe. Other notable net-gain markets include Roanoke, Porter, Pharr, College Station-Bryan, Cypress, Mesquite, Katy, Magnolia, Huntsville, Longview, Prosper, North Richland Hills, Baytown and Kingwood.