People From These States Really Want to Move

All right, we know that some people find living in certain parts of the country to be a lot more desirable than others based on factors like your personality and whether you're looking for certain characteristics like a gay-friendly place to live. But are some locations so unappealing that their residents want to flee elsewhere in droves? According to a new Gallup poll, the answer may very well be yes. For half of 2013, Gallup polled at least 600 residents of each state to discover how many of them wanted to scram for good — and why.

Here are the initial facts: Gallup got these numbers by asking the question, "Regardless of whether you will move, if you had the opportunity, would you like to move to another state, or would you rather remain in your current state?" The states with the highest percentage of dissatisfied residents are Illinois and Connecticut, at 50 percent and 49 percent respectively. On the other hand, Montana, Hawaii, and Maine are tied at 23 percent for the lowest number of potential movers. Overall, 33 percent of Americans would like to try life in another state.

That's not the only question Gallup asked, however. They also polled participants about whether they actually planned on moving within the next year. Across the nation, only 6 percent said it was "extremely likely" or "very likely" that they would pack up their things. 73 percent said that it was "not likely at all." That's an important distinction to make: although plenty residents would appreciate the opportunity to move, it appears that less than 20 percent of that category is really planning on it. Those in Nevada, Illinois, and Arizona are most likely to move in reality, while those in Maine, Iowa, and Vermont are least likely.

Furthermore, Gallup polled those who said that they were planning on moving about their reasons for leaving. The top three reasons are work or business, with 31 percent; family or friends, with 19 percent; and weather or location, with 11 percent. In a culture as work-obsessed as ours, it's not really a surprise that job-related reasons form almost a third of all responses.

So, what conclusions can we draw from such a survey? First and foremost, contrasting these results with a 2013 paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis shows that interstate immigration has dropped by almost half over the last 20 years. Vox says that this could be a result of economic straits: when there are no jobs anywhere, people have less of a desire — or ability — to move. Gallup, on the other hand, points out that their most recent findings line up with others. Texas is in the top 10 in lists of resident satisfaction with taxes, government, and overall perception, whereas Maryland, Illinois, and Connecticut consistently linger near the bottom.

If you're planning on throwing all your possessions into a Uhaul truck soon and swanning off to another state, you may want to pay attention to these surveys. States like Montana and Hawaii are golden, but Illinois or Connecticut may have you packing your bags again, sooner than you think.

Images: David Harris, Flickr; Gallup