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2024 Study: ‘Brain Drain’? The States With the Largest Net Gains and Losses of College-Educated Americans

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Key Findings

  • College-educated Americans were more likely to move (9%) than those without a college degree (7%), according to 2023 Census Bureau data
  • Americans with a college degree were 73% more likely to cite “a new job” as their reason for moving last year
  • Two of the top three destination states for Americans with college degrees — Washington (+169%) and Nevada (+111%) — don’t have state income taxes 
  • New York state (-56%) had a higher net “brain drain” than Alabama (-45%)
  • Four of the top six metros college-educated Americans were most likely to leave are in California

In 2019, a U.S. Congress report looked into “brain drain,” a phenomenon they defined as when “someone in the top third of the national education distribution (resides) in a state other than her birth state between the ages of 31 and 40.”

One of its core findings was that states in the Rust Belt and the Southeast of the U.S. have been losing highly educated Americans for decades, and losing them mostly to states on the West Coast. 

brain drain hireahelperLast year however, an analysis by the New York Times found that more recently, coastal cities such as San Francisco and New York City were losing high rates of college-educated people due to the high cost of living. They reported an influx of college-educated Americans into cities in Georgia and North Carolina — the very states found to be severely impacted by brain drain just a few years prior.

So which is it? Are young, educated people opting for coastal areas over the Southeast and Midwest? Or are they moving away from the coasts, looking for a more affordable living?

In this 2024 report, we try to make sense of these seemingly oppositional reports and shed light on the states and cities losing and gaining the most highly educated Americans. 

Low Taxes, High Gains: Two States with No Income Tax Among Top Destinations for Educated Americans in 2023

Reports that college graduates are leaving the coasts may still be true for New York and California, but they certainly don’t fully account for the coast along the Pacific Northwest.

Top State Winners

According to the latest Current Population Survey, Washington state had three times as many (+169%) college graduates move in compared to leave in 2023; this is the highest net ratio of all states.

Why Washington? A leading educated guess is due to taxes.

A recent estimate places earnings of Americans with a college degree at about 69% higher than the national average, and at over twice as high as those who only finished high school. This might explain why many are flocking to a state that doesn’t have an income tax. (Washington’s biggest city, Seattle, also remains a top location for tech talent.)

 

“The state that lost the most college-educated residents in 2023 was South Dakota, which saw 72% more people with a college degree leave the state versus move in.”

 

Other states on the net-gain list that saw twice as many college-educated Americans move there during 2023 were South Carolina (+137%), Nevada (+111%), and Wisconsin (+110%). 

It’s worth noting that Nevada is another state where no income tax is levied, a state that shares a border with California, a state where taxes are among the highest in the nation.

The South and New England: The States That Lost the Most College-Educated Residents in 2023

States in the Rust Belt seem to have shaken off the issue of losing their highly educated population in 2023 (roughly defined as center-located Midwestern and Eastern states), but the trend in the Southeast persisted last year.

The state that lost the most college-educated residents in 2023 was South Dakota, which saw 72% more people with a college degree leave the state versus move in.

Meanwhile, many states in the Southeast continue to struggle with the so-called brain drain, which is consistent with the 2019 congressional report. Mississippi (-67%), Louisiana (-62%), Oklahoma (-62%) and Alabama (-45%) all saw significantly more college-educated residents leave rather than move in last year.

Interestingly, the Northeastern U.S. appeared to be another brain drain cluster last year. 

New York (-56%) had the sixth-greatest net loss of college-educated residents in the country last year, while every single New England state (except for Rhode Island) lost more residents with college degrees than they gained in 2023, according to the U.S. Census.

Taxes might play a role, as the high cost of living didn’t seem to deter moves to blue states in the Pacific Northwest, yet a blue state like New York (which is among the most expensive to live in) saw big net losses in talent last year.

To see how all the states compare among the number of college-educated residents they attracted and lost in 2023, check out our interactive map below.

Big Cities Lose, Florida Metros Gain: The Top Cities and Metropolitan Area for College-Educated Americans in 2023

A big pattern we’ve found in our migration studies of Millennials and Gen Z was also present in the moves of college-educated Americans: metros in Florida keep topping the list!

Top City/Metro Winners

The Sarasota-Bradenton, FL metro led the pack in 2023, with 135% more people with a college degree moving there last year compared to the total number of college-educated people leaving.

Metro areas around Jacksonville, FL (+81%) and Tampa, FL (+56%) were also top 10 metro areas for 2023. (Interestingly, while many areas in Florida are attracting Americans with college degrees, Orlando, FL metro areas lost about -20% more college-educated people than it gained last year.)

 

“…Washington state had three times as many (+169%) college graduates move in compared to leave in 2023; this is the highest net ratio of all states.”

 

Consistent with state-level findings, the Las Vegas, NV metro (+71%) gained a significant number of residents with college degrees. Similarly, two metros in South Carolina, Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC (+48%) and Charleston-North Charleston, SC (+47%), also rose in college-educated representation. 

And while Tennessee may be losing more highly educated Americans than it’s gaining, that isn’t true of the Nashville, TN metro area; almost twice as many (+98%) college degree holders moved into this metro than left it last year. (It’s worth noting that Tennessee also doesn’t have a state income tax.)

 

Metro % Net Gain — Metro % Net Loss
North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL 135% Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA -51%
Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN 98% New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA -40%
Jacksonville, FL 81% San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA -48%
Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV 71% Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA -32%
Austin-Round Rock, TX 70% Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI -32%
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ 61% San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA -25%
Ann Arbor, MI 56% Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL -20%
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL 56% Columbus, OH -19%
Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC 48% Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT -19%
Charleston-North Charleston, SC 47% Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI -18%

 

Top Metro Losers

While Florida dominated the top destinations list, California had the most metros on the most-moved-out list.

Four of the top six metropolitan areas with the largest net losses in number of college-educated residents were metros in California: Oxnard, CA (-51%), San Jose, CA (-48%), Los Angeles, CA (-32%), and San Francisco, CA (-25%).

What’s the reason behind the California exodus? 

Without being able to declare any single correlation, one can still point to its rising cost of living, a largely unchecked housing crisis, and a documented outflow of tech workers as culprits for why California is losing educated residents at an alarming rate. A similar concern can be said about the New York, NY metro, which had the second greatest (-49%) net loss of all metros when it comes to in- and out-moves by college-educated Americans. 

Explore the moving patterns of highly educated Americans for all other metro areas in our interactive map below.

New Jobs and Relationships: The Reasons Behind Moves of College-Educated Americans

According to the Census Bureau figures on moves in 2023, college-educated Americans were more likely to move (9%) than their counterparts without a college degree (7%).

Looking at their reasons for moving, the one reason that stands out is work. Americans with a college degree who moved last year were 73% more likely to report doing so for “a new job or job transfer” than their non-college-educated counterparts. 

Additionally, they were 24% more likely to cite moving due to a “relationship with umarried partner,” and 15% more likely to cite moving due to wanting “to own a home, not rent.”

The Census data suggests that college-educated Americans weren’t reporting moving for cost-cutting; college-educated Americans were 30% less likely to report moving for “cheaper housing” than those without a college degree.

Sources and Methodology
All data on moves, their origins, destinations and reasons behind them were taken from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey and its Annual Social and Economic Supplements, as available via IPUMS. All estimates and percentages are based on moves within the United States.
“College-educated American” was defined as, “someone who has completed at least an undergraduate/Bachelor’s degree, including a master’s degree, doctorate, or similarly advanced degree.”)
Net gain and loss for states and metropolitan areas were calculated as follows:
  • number of people with a college degree moving into the state or city, to
  • the number of people with a college degree moving out of the state or city,
  • expressed as a percentage (%)
Illustrations by Eva Redamonti

The Schools With the Biggest Pull: A Study of Moving for College in the US

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Key Findings

  • Harvard University ranks #1 in our ranking as the school with the strongest “pull” in the country
  • 40% of Americans who began college in 2021 moved away from home
  • 20% of those who moved for college left their home state, down from 31% in 2020
  • In 47 out of 50 states, the majority of new college students enrolled in a college inside their home state
  • Ohio attracted almost 12% of all out-of-state college moves in 2021, more than any other state
  • White students (30%) were twice as likely as Hispanic students (14%) to move to college in another state

Introducing HireAHelper College Move Index: The Most Moved-To Colleges in the United States

As college enrollment declines and an increasing number of students are choosing to go to college in their home state, which U.S. colleges and universities continue to see a steady stream of American students from all around the country?

To work this out, we took 200 highest-rated U.S. colleges and collated data on:

  • Average miles traveled by newly admitted students from the U.S.
  • Percentage of newly admitted students coming from a different state
  • Number of U.S. states represented among new students, and 
  • U.S. News college ranking in 2023

Based on a combination of these factors, we created a “College Move Index”. This is a ranking that compares top U.S. colleges on how much “pull” they have in terms of attracting new students from across the country.

 

“Of all the U.S. states, only the District of Columbia (85%) New Hampshire (53%), and Minnesota (51%) had more than 50% of their students go elsewhere to begin college.”

 

The colleges and universities…

  • With the most out-of-state students
  • Where a new student had to travel the longest distance to attend
  • Whose student body represented as many U.S. states as possible

…ranked highest on our model. Conversely, those where newly admitted students were mostly local were ranked lower.

Browse the graphic to discover the top 50 schools in the United States with the strongest “pull” for other U.S. students. You can also see how colleges compare on individual factors.

To see how the rest of the colleges we studied fared, check out the interactive table at the end of this article.

Despite Declining Enrollment, Moving to College Remains Popular

In 2022, just over 2 million Americans enrolled in college, which is 1.5% fewer than did so in 2021, according to the fall enrollment estimates produced by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

This adds to the long-term trend of declining college enrollment, which stretches to 2009 — the last time the number of Americans enrolling in college or university increased year-to-year.

Still based on the Annual Social and Economic Supplement data from the Current Population Survey, as many as 827,000 Americans moved to go to college last year. That makes for a somewhat marginal increase of 0.2% compared to 2021.

College admissions have been declining for over a decade, but the number of people moving for college had a different trajectory. In 2020, for example, as many as 43% of newly enrolled students moved to attend college. In 2022, this figure is still at nearly 40%.

 

“The state where students were most likely to go to college locally was Utah, with 92% of new students choosing to study in their home state.”

 

This may be an indication that fewer people enroll in colleges close to where they live; think local community colleges or trade schools. 

Meanwhile, better-known schools continue to enroll at the same pace, increasing the share of new students who relocate to attend college.

In our previous study, the average distance a new student had to move to study in one of the top 200 colleges and universities was 293 miles. That number has grown 33% higher, with an average of 390 miles.

Migration of the Minds: States that Students are Most and Least Likely to Leave

One in five (20%) students who enrolled in college in 2021 (the latest data available) left their home state, which is markedly lower than 31% who did so the year prior.

Of all the U.S. states, only the District of Columbia (85%) New Hampshire (53%), and Minnesota (51%) had more than 50% of their students go elsewhere to begin college.

In line with the findings of our previous study, the states that saw most of their students leave to go to college in another state are generally smaller, less populated states with fewer colleges and universities for local students to enroll in.

Also notable: Alaska (48%), Vermont (46%), Delaware (45%), and Rhode Island (43%) were also among the states with the highest share of students leaving to pursue a college degree in another state. 

State % of students leaving state State % of students leaving state
District of Columbia  85.4% Utah 8.4%
New Hampshire 52.9% Arizona 11.9%
Minnesota 51.3% California 11.9%
Alaska 48.5% Alabama 12.9%
Vermont 46.3% Indiana 13.0%
Delaware 45.4% Mississippi  13.1%
Rhode Island 43.0% Florida 13.1%
Hawaii 38.4% Louisiana 13.1%
Maryland 37.0% Kentucky 13.5%
Connecticut 36.1% Oklahoma 13.8%

The state where students were most likely to go to college locally was Utah, with 92% of new students choosing to study in their home state. In Arizona and California, that share was at a similarly high 88%. 

In many southern states like Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana and Kentucky, the share of students staying inside their home state for college was 87%.

 

“Around 30% of white students left their home state to pursue higher education, as did 28% of Asian and Pacific Islander students … [while] just 14% of Hispanic and 18% of Black college enrollees ended up moving to a different state.”

 

To put all these findings into greater context, it’s worth remembering that moving in 2021 was still very much affected by the pandemic, back when many people reported moving in search of safety or to better take care of their family members.

2021 was also the year when, for similar reasons, colleges were flip-flopping between remote study and in-person instruction.

Together, these two factors may have contributed to the fact that for many new students, moving to study out-of-state in 2021 simply wasn’t an option they were willing to pursue.

Oh Wow, Ohio: Buckeye State Top Destination for Out-of-State College Moves

In a year that wasn’t a big one for out-of-state moves to pursue a college degree, where did those Americans that did move go to study? The answer may surprise you.

In 2021, the state that was the top destination for those moving to college was Ohio, which attracted 11.6% of all interstate moves bound for colleges or universities.

Remarkably, Ohio overtook the states that usually dominate these rankings: Illinois (7.8%), Texas (7.6%) and even Massachusetts (7.1%), all known for their high-profile universities.

Demographic Distance: Certain Students Are Most Likely To Move to College Out-of-State

Despite a relatively high percentage of newly admitted students who moved to go to college, how far they moved varied significantly by their demographic.

Around 30% of white students left their home state to pursue higher education, as did 28% of Asian and Pacific Islander students. 

These figures are roughly twice as high as the corresponding percentages for Hispanic and Black students. Just 14% of Hispanic and 18% of Black college enrollees ended up moving to a different state.

That being said, around two-thirds of both Black (69%) and Hispanic (64%) new students were more likely to relocate to a different state county to pursue a college degree. While for white and Asian/Pacific Islander students, about a third were already living in their state’s county where they ended up going to college.

To see how schools in the top 200 of U.S. News ranking compare on how far students are prepared to travel there, see the interactive table below.

Sources and Methodology
Figures on the number and percentage of people moving to college within or outside their home state come from the Current Population Survey (CPS). 
Data on college admissions, including the origin states of newly admitted students, are taken from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
The U.S. News 2022-23 Best National University Rankings are used as the basis for selecting the top 200 colleges in the United States.
To estimate the average distance traveled by a newly admitted student, we took the school’s location and calculated the distance between its campus and the statistical population centers of each state (as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau).
All calculations are weighted, which is to say, the more students a college admitted from farther away, the greater the average distance traveled was.
Only moves within the United States are considered.
The HireAHelper College Move Index score has a maximum of 100 points and is based on a selection of 4 factors, which were weighted as follows:
  • Distance Travelled Score (40 points) = Estimated average miles travelled by newly admitted students 
  • Out of State Score (25 points) = Percentage of newly admitted students coming from a different state 
  • State Representation Score (30 points) = Number of U.S. states represented among new students 
  • Ranking Score (5 points) = U.S. News ranking in 2023 
Illustrations by Ashley Wong
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