Where America Moves · dustincoledata · 2022–2023 IRS
America keeps moving south and west.
Every year the IRS quietly records where households filed their taxes from — and where they filed the year before. The ring below is the 30 largest U.S. metros, plus Louisville, trading people all at once; click any metro, on the ring or the map, to see who it trades with, whether it’s gaining or losing, and what those movers earn.
All 31 metros
Each ribbon is people exchanged between two metros; colour is net direction (cool = gaining, warm = leaving). Hover a metro on the map to link it here.
The map · click a metro
Dot size = total movers (in + out) · fill = net direction.
The national picture · at rest
Of these 31 metros — the 30 largest, plus Louisville — 12 are net destinations and 19 are net departures. They trade about about 1.6 million people with one another in a year — every ribbon in the ring.
Biggest gain
Dallas
+39,109 net
Biggest loss
New York
−174,207 net
Click any metro — on the ring or the map — to light up its exchanges and read its in / out / net and what its movers earn.
the key← cool comes, warm goes
Arriving — net gain of people
Leaving — net loss of people
Rest of U.S. — everywhere outside the 31 metros
Colour carries direction; the sign (+/−) and labels repeat it, so it never rests on colour alone. Spectral within each pole shows magnitude.