Red and blue states are moving further apart than ever before on tax policy – and new population data shows that Americans are noticing. As high-tax Democrat states continue to bleed population, low-tax Republican states are seeing a surge in growth.
A new study from The Wall Street Journal reveals just how polarized states are becoming on tax policy. “Republican-led states are racing each other to flatten, cut and eliminate individual income taxes, with 23 states lowering their top income-tax rates since 2021,” the Journal reports. “Democratic-controlled states are moving the opposite way, pushing to increase taxes on top earners to combat inequality and plug budget holes.”
Meanwhile, any middle ground – states that have moderate tax burdens – is disappearing:
“In 2006, 15 states had top income-tax rates on wage income below five percent and just one exceeded 10 percent, according to the Tax Foundation, a group that favors lower rates and fewer breaks. Now, more than half of the states have gone below five percent and five others plus the District of Columbia are in double digits.”
Currently, nine states have no state income tax. But Washington – the only Democrat-dominated state on that list – is now looking to impose a 9.9 percent tax on income over $1 million. Democrats in New York, Rhode Island, and Colorado are also pursuing higher taxes on top earners.
In an even more extreme case, California has proposed a “one-time” five percent wealth tax on billionaires that has already driven high-profile figures like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, among others, to move out of the state.
On the other end of the spectrum, Mississippi and Oklahoma have charted a course to eliminate their state income taxes altogether. South Carolina is aiming to drop its income tax to 1.99 percent, and a Missouri ballot initiative this November could phase out the income tax there as well.
Americans are already voting with their feet on which tax model they prefer. A new analysis from Visual Capitalist shows which states saw the biggest population gains and losses per 10,000 inhabitants in 2025, and the trend is clear: low-tax red states are booming, while high-tax blue states are struggling.
South Carolina clocked in at the number one spot in the analysis, with Idaho, Delaware, Tennessee, and Alabama rounding out the top five. Meanwhile, Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, and California saw the worst net migration losses. Of the nine states with no income tax, all except two (Alaska and Washington) saw net migration gains.
Raw population growth data from 2020 to 2025 tells a similar story. The only states to see their overall population decline over that time period were California, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, and West Virginia. The states that saw the largest percentage increase in their populations were Idaho (10.4 percent), Florida (8.9 percent), South Carolina (8.8 percent), Texas (8.8 percent), and Utah (8.2 percent).
Taken together, these reports suggest that state tax policy now marks a sharper political and economic split. Americans move for many reasons, but the migration pattern favors states with lower costs and, in many cases, lighter tax burdens.
Economist Charles Tiebout developed the idea later associated with “voting with your feet,” arguing that people reveal preferences not only through elections, but through mobility as well. By choosing where to live, they choose among different combinations of taxes and public services.
In one sense, where Americans choose to live is an even stronger indicator of what policies they prefer than individual election outcomes. People may not follow every policy debate in detail, but they know when a state taxes too much, costs too much, or just governs poorly. Americans sort themselves into states that better match their preferences, and that movement puts real pressure on state governments. High-tax states can promise more redistribution, but those promises are difficult to sustain when high earners and successful businesses leave.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently acknowledged this, stating that New York is “in competition with other states who have less of a tax burden on their corporations and their individuals,” then begged for “patriotic millionaires” to return and help fund the state’s “generous social programs.”
Low- or no-tax states are making a wager that lighter burdens will attract enough people, capital, and growth to support public services without squeezing their tax bases harder. The Journal’s observation that the middle ground is disappearing only makes the contrast clearer. The experiments are becoming easier to see, and so are the results.
The moving trucks are delivering a clear message: Americans are gravitating toward states that ask less, cost less, and simply get government out of the way.
Sarah Katherine Sisk is a proud Hillsdale College alumna and a master’s student in economics at George Mason University. You can follow her on X @SKSisk76.
The only real problem with people leaving their states — How many are bringing their brand of politics with them. These newbies love to escape tax burdened states but keep voting for the Democrat party. Eventually they could possibly make their “new” state into another CA or NY. Leave your old politics behind.
All those libs moving to red states – they are still Democrats and are not going to become Republicans just because they got away from some taxes. Do not be fooled Conservatives. They will run you over with their liberal ideas and they will run for office and may win, turning those nice red states blue.
It’s one thing to leave a blue state for a red state because of taxes, but how did they vote while living in that blue state? Red states welcome anyone but leave your blue voting pattern where you left it.
Can someone explain why we gave the Blue states a huge federal income tax present in the Big Beautiful Bill by raising the cap on State and Local Taxes (SALT) from $10,000 to $40,000 ?
AS A LIFETIME (79 YEARS) RESIDENT OF FLORIDA, I AM NOT HAPPY SEEING ANY MORE OF THESE PEOPLE COMING FROM THESE BLUE STATES IF THEY WANT TO BRING THEIR DERANGED, LEFTIST POLITICS; WITH THEM. FLORIDA IS POLITICALLY CONSERVATIVE AND DOING JUST FINE. POLITICAL DIFFERENCES, DISCUSSION AND DEBATING IS GOOD, BUT NOT THE LEVEL OF DERANGED DISCOURSE THAT WE HAVE WITNESSED. JOHN FETTERMAN (IN MY OPINION} IS ON OF THE FEW MEMBERS OF CONGRESS OR SENATE WHO VOTES FOR WHAT HE BELIEVES IS BEST FOR THE COUNTRY, NOT NECESSARILY HIS POLITICAL FUTURE OR HIS PARTY. THANK YOU GOVERNOR DESANTIS, YOU HAVE DONE A FANTASTIC JOB…
Democrats are still opposed to the Declaration of Independence and its sentiments. They still don’t understand the Boston Tea Party or who Americans really are. They behave just like Europeans, the people we broke away from. California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and a handful of other states have effectively seceded from the U. S. They don’t follow the Constitution either. Sanctuary policies mean that they’re running thei own foreign and immigration policies which are not in their purview. That’s federal business, not city or state. Brin, Page and Zuckerberg should have stayed in California and live under the policies they helped!
I live in Oklahoma, we have 77 counties, in all 3 elections 2016, 2020, 2024, President Trump won all 77 counties, all 3 times. But we have a huge democrat problem. They are mayors, city council members, completely dominate the school board, teachers are all Democrats, leading our kids down the same democrat public school disasters, one right after another. They try to raise property taxes, to get schools more money, for higher salaries, more time off, more school security, and on and on. We need to privatize the school system, to take them out of union control. If the schools are left in these democrat hands, socialism, then communism, is going to take over, just a matter of time.
Other than the fact that our country is Bankrupt , we need a totally new Income-Tax System . We need to start paying down are 40 Trillion Dollar Deficit , or we will not survive as a country .
probably the biggest problem in this country is that the idiots that vote for the dimms because they actually believe all the lies.they see the damage done by their dimm politicians & automatically think that conservatives caused it.as proof just look at the number of idiots in office that weren’t even born here.most are involved in extreme fraud & their only thoughts are how to steal more from the country.laws need to be passed to limit all gov positions to natural born citizens, & send them back to the hellholes they came from,no exceptions.omar & mamdammit first.
I hope that the people moving out of the blue states into the red states leave their liberal/marxist voting habits in the blue state they left and start a new habit of voting using common sense in the red state they move into.
Yes, they leave and bring their politics with them. Some years later, the new state they invade will be almost blue. The left will at some future date run out of states to destroy.The Democrats destroy everything they touch. That’s what liars do. Sad!
If I was younger I would have left this state in a minute. The democrats states tax you to death and on top of that you don’t feel safe going outside. With all the illegals here many of them criminals and sanctuary cities. We citizens are sitting ducks. All the tax money goes to the illegals and poor and sick and elderly citizens are overlooked. Now they want to bring legal prostitution to this state to make up the budget shortage. I say rework the budget. We don’t need the mafia or cartels here creating sex trade in this state and all the other crime that comes with it. The democrats govern with other peoples money. They take but never show how and where it was spent. Then all of a sudden 9 billion dollars in fraud is discovered and not one democrat will admit that this happened right under their noses. It’s Trumps fault they say. Like President Reagan said Trust but verify. But democrats put policies in place with no oversight. And if there is oversight they are all blind. 9 billion dollars in Minnesota and billions of dollars in CA and Ohio where next. NYCity? After all their mayor is a communist/globalist. Look at Illinois and Chicago. You can shoot and kill people there with impunity. And don’t you call that shooter an illegal. He walked into this country with no papers therefore he broke the immigration laws and is therefore here illegally. Why do we have passports and visas when we travel to other countries? It’s to make sure that you are who you say you are and if you can live there legally or not. If you don’t have any papers have never applied for a visa to live there permanently but you stay there anyway you are an illegal. People can be illegal. People can be criminals and be illegal. ICE is not out of control as Bernie Sanders keeps screaming. They are doing their job according to the immigration laws. Biden was out of control by letting in 20 million people from unaccompanied minors, criminals from all over the world into this country. Had them flown in on our tax dime. These people who came here from Laos and Other SE Asian countries were not poor. Their own government flew them here. I don’t think they were the cream of the crop but mentally disturbed, diseased or a criminal. And now we don’t know where they are. The democrats protect them because they are their voters. They won’t pass the Save Act or fund DHS because they would lose millions of voters. They rather break the TSA agents in order to destroy ICE and have fair elections. They have their fraud in place and don’t want to give it up. Communist dictators are ruling the dem party and are destroying this country. People are leaving these dem states because off high taxes but moreover because of their policies and mandates to control the citizens and pamper the illegals.
Today I see there are other people who report what I have stated in several previous comments. The people from blue states continue to vote their radical liberal way making the red states become purple or worse more red. It has happened to AZ. Our two senators in DC are Kelly and Gallego and our current governor is Hobbs. You cannot find more radical liberals than these three. And we have not had an uncontested election in several years…all elections from local to federal!
I was a little confused by the mention of West Virginia implying that its high taxes were the reason people were leaving. My sister and brother-in-law live there and my husband and I have contemplated moving there and “high taxes” wasn’t even on our radar. The reason people are leaving WVA is because of the lack of economic opportunity there. My sister and her husband are retired as are my husband and myself and for us it would be a great move.
M0vers just remember to leave the blue state policies in the blue state.Remember how your state got into this tax bind, by electing ignorant or fraudulent leaders. Course we still realize that all elections are not fair and honest.
What you tax, you get less of; what you subsidize, you get more of. That’s why blue states have rich people fleeing and poor people [including illegals] flocking to them!
Migrating drmocrats are a societal cancer that has matastasized
Wyoming is full! We might be able to squeeze in a few migrants from other red states but we already have more than enough Californians and other left coasters.
You have the colors reversed. It is primarily the Red (Conservative) states that are gaining population, and primarily the Blue (Liberal/Democrat) states that are losing population. The exceptions are few & easily explained.
I think it pretty clear, though not to idiot Demorat voters, with the flight of Zuckerberg (Facebood), Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google), Larry Ellison (Oracle) and their ilk, that they just start the fires of blue-state socialism, then they run to the red state fire stations. Because the Demorat voters there are idiots, and are not even intelligent enough to hold them responsible.
kathy “The Mannequin” hochul pleading with high earners to return to rotten apple hell is hilarious. Those people aren’t buying it even though she’s telling the truth about wanting them to fund the state’s overly generous and highly corrupt social programs. YOU LOSE kathy !
Simple. Concerned citizens demand officials and representatives stop spending. Look at the post office. Current P. General claims the post office will run out of money before year’s end. Not once in the article (The Epoch Times) was current income mentioned, which (what?) is the opposite of consumption. The only solution offered was the possibility of raising the First Class Stamp to a dollar. Not once was the volume of extremely low-priced bulk mail, nor its pricing structure mentioned. Wonder why not. Imagine a postal delivery worker carrying around a big, beautiful bag of letters, walking from private box to box, slot to slot, ninety per cent of the letters “bulk mail” sent by charities, political fund-raising factories in Merrifield, VA, public service announcements or “updates” from representatives, while ten percent is the normal intercourse between private citizens. The burden is the bulk mail. Having watched and tracked the cost of that service carried by the users for the past ten years, watching first class prices rise and bulk mail prices fall, it seems the lobbying is in favor of the commercial users responsible for the bulk of the mail load. Charge them appropriately. Congress needs to rid itself of the parasitical Postal Commission and hire someone who knows how to run a profitable business.
All fine and good, *unless* those fleeing blue states continue to vote for liberal policies.
It’s like my friend in Idaho said already a couple of years ago, so many people from Calif. are moving here, but we want them to leave their unwise thinking back in Calif. You are welcome but not your political biased ideas.
Heidi
I live in Texas and we are getting so many rich liberals migrating into our state from blue states. Of course they are preferring our big blue cities especially Austin our Capital city. Frankly, I don’t want them here, knowing how susceptible politicians are to the lure of big money influence. It’s like having the enemy living inside your home.
Tough on Crime policies are also an issue which coincides with low tax states.
First, they cause the problem by creating the policies that make life intolerable. Then they run away to a place that doesn’t have those policies. And proceed to get those same policies in place in their new digs.
That’s how cancers spread.
Income taxes are only one source of income for any state. Without that, states will just use another avenue to achieve their income goals. All states are going to get that revenue from all of us, one way or another. I personally believe it is absolutely crazy for anyone to think they can escape it no matter where they may choose to move
Using % rate per 10,000 residents is stupid and misleading. If 100,000 people leave California, that’s a rate per 10,000 of 25.6%, even though it represents only 1/4 of a percent of their population. If they all moved to Wyoming, that would be a 1,724% gain per 10,000 residents. This is intended to make large blue states losing an insignificant number of people to small res states seem significant.
The states that are moving away from the income tax will be the biggest winners, and Washington, not surprisingly, will be a big loser, moving to an income tax and becoming even more California-like, perhaps beginning to lose population. The states that are eliminating the income tax, are, not surprisingly, states that are advancing economically and competing with their brothers.
In the Democrat party the only ones that are allowed to be wealthy are the politicians. Capitalism is evil! Only socialism can kill people by the millions over 65 million just in China. How many babies do Democrats kill every day? God is counting
I see the fallacy occurring in Florida especially with those who have TDS —look at the district that Margo Lago is located in— those who are voting and I am acknowledging that there’s plenty of people who don’t feel like voting or only vote for anything else that isn’t Trump—this is a big example of taking advantage because they had the money to change geographic location and now in their stubbornness will be recreating the same problem that they left behind. I rather deal with the situation in my own home turf than have to start anew elsewhere. Especially since it’s financially impossible for me to just implement a move elsewhere easily like the rich do so impulsively.
All states win save Blue states
I’d still rather live in NYC even if it costs more. I love being able to walk to anywhere I want to go. All the restaurants, parks, shops, museums, entertainment is pretty much unmatched by any other place. The diversity of options and depth of experiences in NYC you just don’t get that anywhere else.