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2008 Update: Where They Come From, Where They Go

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Jack Hoffman (October 2008)

Families moving to Vermont continue to report higher incomes than people who remain in the state or leave it. The latest data from the Internal Revenue Service show that individual filers and families who relocated to Vermont in 2007 had about 9.3 percent more income per family member than those who left. The new arrivals also had more income per family member—7 percent more —than Vermonters who stayed put last year.

According to the IRS’s report tracking migration patterns from 2006 to 2007, 16,238 people moved out of Vermont last year and 15,073 moved in.1 The number that left the state was slightly lower than the number that left the previous year. However, the number moving to Vermont dropped about 8 percent.

As in 2006, the people immigrating to Vermont had higher incomes than those who left. The newcomers reported average adjusted gross income per family member of $28,570. For people who left, the comparable figure was $26,141; for non-migrating taxpayers, $26,697.

People moving here from New Jersey were much better heeled than non-migrating taxpayers. A little more than 500 people moved here from that state last year, with an average income per person of $46,111. Almost 1,000 people moved here from Connecticut, and they came with about 50 percent more income than Vermonters who stayed put. Newcomers from Massachusetts earned about 20 percent more.

The Vermont migration figures for 2007 are reported below. Figure 1 compares the total incomes of people moving in and out of the state in 2007. Figures 2 and 3 show, by state, where Vermonters went when they left and where people lived before they moved into Vermont.

Source: Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division; Public Assets Institute

Source: Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division; Public Assets Institute

 

Source: Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division; Public Assets Institute

Source: Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division; Public Assets Institute

 

Footnotes:

1 As an approximation of the number of people coming and going, the IRS tracks the returns filed and the exemptions (primary filers, secondary filers, and dependent children) reported on each return.

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