Who is moving from California to Utah?

People moving from California to Utah are more likely to have a household income of $100,000 or more, compared to those who move to Utah from anywhere else.

That is according to a recent report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute about Californians moving to Utah.

More Californians move to Utah than Utahns move to California. Just under 20,000 Californians moved to the Beehive State in 2022 and under 15,000 Utahns moved to California, the report said as it drew on census data and the American Community Survey.

Once Californians move to Utah, there are most likely to live in Salt Lake County or Saratoga Springs, Payson and Southwest Lehi. One-third of all Californians who move to the Beehive State end up in Utah County.

Half of Californians (25-years old and up) relocating to Utah either have a bachelor’s degree or an advance degree. Sixty percent of Californians above the age of 16 who move here have a job and 36% of them are not in the labor force. Only 3% of them are unemployed.

Californians moving here have higher household incomes and are more likely to purchase a home than people moving from anywhere else.

“Within the first year of moving to Utah, half of California in-migrants own their new residence, and the other half rent,” said the report. “This pattern differs from the rest of Utah’s in-migrants, where only one-third own their residence within the first year and two-thirds rent.”

In terms of household income, those moving from California are more likely to have incomes within the following brackets than those who move from elsewhere: $50,000 and $75,000, $100,000 and $124,000, $150,000 and $174,000, $175,000 and $199,000 and over $200,000.

Forty percent of households moving from California to Utah have an income of $100,000.

While California leads the nation in the number of residents moving to Utah, other states with significant numbers of residents relocating to the Beehive State are Washington, Idaho, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Oregon and New York.