Editor's note
Dr. Valerie McCray is the first woman to be nominated from Indiana for the U.S. Senate. Her views, placing mental health among national priorities, match those of Hoosier families. Listen to this week’s Who Gets What? podcast at mortonjohn.libsyn.com.
Every year the Census Bureau obliges our curiosity about our neighbors with data on the geographic mobility of the American population. The following data for 2023 were released last week. They are not biased as are the data released by moving companies which tend to have an exclusive clientele.

In 2023, Indiana was in the middle of the pack for most measures. Of the 6.7 million Hoosiers age one and older, 87.5% were living in the same residence as a year earlier. That ranked 31st of the 50 states, just above Georgia (87.4%) and only slightly below the national figure of 87.9%.

But don’t worry, we’re among the top states in movers who came from within the same state. With 9.8% of our population moving within Indiana, even within the same county, we’re 11th in the nation, sandwiched between Nevada and Arizona. Who would have thought we had anything in common with those water leeches?

Now, if you’ve kept a running total, you’ve noticed that the stay-putters and the same-staters together account for 97.3% of the Indiana’s population age one or older. That means “aliens” from Ohio and other exotic locales represented just 2.7% of our state’s population in 2023.

Following this thread, we find eight of ten “aliens” came from other states in our Union. That left only 0.2% of today’s Hoosiers actually from abroad.

Who were these “furrenors?” Some may be among the “hoards bursting our borders,” but others may just be Hoosiers returning home -- students, retirees, or business representatives living in foreign lands temporarily.

This latest Census report also includes data on the interchange of population between Indiana and other states.

Once again, Illinois does not win the prize for sending the most people to, and receiving Hoosiers from, Indiana. It is a favorite story with folks living in Northwest Indiana. The persistent myth is that Illini are lusting to be Hoosiers, and our citizens have an uncontrollable urge to live in the Land of Lincoln.

The interchange between Indiana and Illinois was 11,600 leaving Indiana and 12,500 moving east to the Hoosier Holyland. We enjoyed a net in-migration of only 900 from Illinois. That was only 3.5% of the 26,700 net in migration for Indiana in 2023.

Florida was the state with which Indiana had the greatest migration exchange. That figure was 44,400, made up of 15,000 going to Florida and 29,500 moving to Indiana. Note: that was before Helene and Milton toured the Sunshine State.

In the competition for honors of the gross population interchange with Indiana, behind Florida, and ahead of Illinois, was Ohio. But it will take more evidence beyond 2023 to make a case for major trends and understanding the factors influencing such movements.

Only hysterical politicians and naïve administrators go nuts over a single year’s migration data.
Morton J. Marcus is an economist formerly with the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His column appears in Indiana newspapers, and his views can be followed his podcast.

© 2024 Morton J. Marcus

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