Migration trends in Kansas and the Nation

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New U.S. Census Bureau data shows that Kansas continues to have low rates of domestic migration, with more people moving from Kansas than moving to the state.

Each year the United States Census Bureau provides estimates of the population of states. It also produces estimates of change due to natural causes such as birth and deaths, and movement due to migration. These values are provided in two ways: as counts and as rates per thousand state residents.

It is important to note these are estimates, not counts as in the decennial census.

In many charts and tables, I present the data as the difference from the national rate. This makes it simple to see if a state is above or below the national level. This produces seemingly nonsensical results such as a negative birth rate. A negative value, however, simply means that the birth rate for the state is less than the national rate.

In the nearby charts, we see that Kansas has a low rate of domestic migration, being negative in all years covered by this data. The negative rate means that more people move from Kansas than move to Kansas.

Comparing Kansas to the nation and nearby states, we see that Kansas has a lower domestic migration rate than most. Even among neighboring states, Kansas does not compare well.

These examples are taken from my interactive visualization of state population, with changes due to births, deaths, and migration. To learn more about the data and use the interactive visualization, click here.

Click charts for larger versions.

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