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(Fenton, MO) -- Iowa is seeing stable population numbers over that past year, with Des Moines and the Quad Cities seeing growth.
"Both those areas are showing growth, and a lot of the other Iowa cities are very balanced," said Eily Cummings, with the UniGroup, which just published its annual United Van Lines study of movement trends in the 48 continental U.S. States, the largest study of its kind. She says the Des Moines metro witnessed about four percentage points in growth.
However, the same study has Nebraska seeing a decline, especially with retirees. Iowa's numbers in that category are stable for the first time in recent years.
"It has one of the lowest movements for retirement," Cummings said, "so Nebraska is seeing a lot of retiree movement out of the state, and Iowa is not seeing that."
Cummings says for years, people moving to take a new job or transferring a job has topped the list for reasons for moving. For the first year, being closer to family is now the top reason for people making a move.
"It seems like in Iowa, your retirees are staying put, which could be attributed to Iowa's tax structure being a little more favorable than Nebraska," Cummings said. Officials in Nebraska, including Governor Jim Pillen, have made property tax relief a top priority over the past year. Officials in Iowa have been working on tax cuts for several years, including eliminating state taxes on retirement income and instituting a flat tax starting this year.
This past year, the states seeing the largest growth in the study are West Virginia, Delaware, and South Carolina. The biggest loss comes for New Jersey, Illinois, and New York.
Recent U.S. Census numbers have the median age in Nebraska slightly younger than Iowa, at 37.4 years compared to 39.1, with both states falling behind the national median age rate of 39.2.