Pennsylvania ranks number 6 for people moving out. is this true or not
Executive summary
The claim that "Pennsylvania ranks number 6 for people moving out" is not supported by the reporting provided: the available data instead show Pennsylvania near the bottom for state growth in recent U-Haul one‑way rental rankings (46th of 50) and a mid‑pack negative net domestic migration ranking (34th) in IRS‑based analysis by the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office (IFO), but no source here lists Pennsylvania specifically as "number 6" for out‑migration [1] [2] [3].
1. What the phrase could mean — different metrics, different stories
"People moving out" can refer to several different metrics — absolute number of departures, net domestic migration (inflows minus outflows), percentage loss relative to population, or household moves reflected in rental truck data — and each produces different rankings and interpretations, which helps explain why a single "number 6" claim needs a clear source or metric to be meaningful [4] [5].
2. What U‑Haul’s one‑way rental data shows about Pennsylvania
U‑Haul’s semiannual migration report, cited by multiple local and regional outlets, places Pennsylvania among the states with low growth and reports the state ranked 46th out of 50 in growth for 2025 based on one‑way rental activity, not a simple “people moving out” count; that ranking signals relatively weak inbound movement or stronger outbound movement compared with most states but is not the same as an explicit "6th most people leaving" label [1] [2] [6].
3. What tax/IRS‑based state migration research shows
The IFO’s brief using IRS tax‑filing migration data for 2020–2021 reports Pennsylvania had net domestic migration of −14,376 (−0.11% of population) and ranked 34th among states on that metric, which contradicts an interpretation that Pennsylvania is among the very worst in out‑migration if the claim meant net percentage loss by population; again, that IRS‑based rank is a different analytic approach than U‑Haul’s rental flows [3].
4. Why conflicting numbers or impressions arise
Different data sources measure different behaviors: U‑Haul captures one‑way truck rentals as a proxy for household moves and skews toward movers who rent their own truck; IRS tax‑return flows capture year‑to‑year resident changes among filers; academic and Census‑based approaches measure net migration at different intervals and with demographic detail — therefore comparing a "rank 6" claim without naming the metric or source risks conflating incompatible measures [4] [7] [5].
5. What the supplied reporting does and does not show
The supplied reporting confirms Pennsylvania has experienced periods of net domestic outflows and ranks low on some growth lists (U‑Haul’s 46th growth rank and IFO’s 34th net domestic migration rank are directly documented), but none of the provided sources identify Pennsylvania specifically as "number 6 for people moving out," so the exact "number 6" assertion is unsupported by the documents at hand [1] [2] [3].
6. Bottom line and caveats for interpreting rankings
Bottom line: based on the given sources, the statement "Pennsylvania ranks number 6 for people moving out" cannot be verified and appears inconsistent with the U‑Haul and IFO rankings provided (46th and 34th respectively); however, differences in methodology, timeframe, and the lack of the original "number 6" source mean this analysis cannot categorically disprove that some other dataset or timeframe might have produced a #6 figure — that specific citation is simply absent from the reporting provided [1] [3].