Yes People are Moving from Illinois but where are they Moving too?

We all know that people are moving out of Illinois, but the results may shock you as to where these people are moving to when they leave the Land of Lincoln.

Get our free mobile app

I have lived in Illinois for my whole life, from the suburbs of Chicago to DeKalb for college, back to the suburbs in my parent's basement, then living in Chicago a 10-minute walk from Wrigley Field, and now living in west-central Quincy for almost 3 years. During my 31 years of living in Illinois, I have known many friends and family members who have left the Land of Lincoln to other states, mostly warmer places with fewer taxes, which is why I was pretty shocked when I saw this article from wgntv.com about where people in Illinois are moving too.

The article, to see the whole thing click here, ranks the 30 top states people from Illinois are moving to and there are plenty of states in the top ten that we'd all guess Florida is number 2, California is 3rd, Texas is 4th, Arizona is 8th, and even Iowa makes the list at 9th. But I was surprised to see that the NUMBER 1 state that people are leaving Illinois for is Indiana, approximately 36,000 people left Illinois for Indiana in 2019, that's crazy. I get that Indiana has a better tax structure but seriously I have never seen the draw for Indiana. Missouri comes in at 6th on the list, and in my opinion, should be higher, I get leaving Illinois for the warm weather of Texas, Arizona, California, and Florida but to stay in the midwest and choose Indiana over Wisconsin, Missouri, Michigan, or even just staying in Illinois seems odd.

Maybe I am missing something, I have driven through, and visited Indiana a bunch, what am I missing as to why people are willing to move there and not just get all the way to Texas or Florida?