Mississippi Migration Flows
Who moves in, who moves out, and where they go · 2010–2024
Net migration vs. natural change, 2011–2024
Net migration = people moving in minus people moving out. Natural change = births minus deaths. For most of the 2010s Mississippi’s natural increase masked heavy out-migration; after 2020 natural change turned negative while migration finally edged positive.
Census Bureau intercensal estimates (2010s) blended with Vintage 2024 estimates (2020s). 2010 is the baseline year and is omitted. The post-2022 migration gains are real but small — roughly 2,000 people a year against a decade that lost 80,000.
Moves in and out of Mississippi, tax-return data
The IRS tracks address changes on tax returns — the most reliable count of actual interstate moves. Individuals = filers plus dependents.
IRS revised its migration methodology around 2014–16; comparisons across that seam are imperfect. Money amounts are adjusted gross income reported by movers in the year of the move — when high earners leave, their incomes leave with them.
Which states drain Mississippi — and which feed it?
Cumulative net flow of individuals with each state, 2011–2023. Red = Mississippi lost people to that state on net; green = gained. Hover a tile for the exact count.
Where do people go when they leave?
People who lived in Mississippi one year earlier, by where they lived in 2023. American Community Survey, person-weighted.
Nearly two-thirds of leavers stay in the South — Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Georgia absorb most of the outflow. Proximity, not distance, defines the brain drain: people leave for the nearest bigger labor market.
College graduates who leave their home state
Share of each state’s native-born college graduates (ages 22–50) now living in another state. Mississippi is highlighted.