Moving industry statistics 2026: movers, costs, companies and where Americans go

By Jan Suski. I go deep on every review, checking every number against its source and digging up details other coverage misses, a habit from six years of SEO and link building for tech companies. Bylines at Surfer, Brand24, and Senuto. How the scoring works.

Published 16 October 2026

The U.S. moving industry booked about $25.7 billion in 2026 and grew 0.3%, according to IBISWorld's Moving Services market-size estimate. That's a flat year for a business that depends on people changing addresses, and the federal numbers show why: employment at household goods movers fell 12.2% between 2022 and 2025 while the producer price index for moving companies climbed 44.6% from January 2020.

How many Americans move depends on which survey you open, and the moving industry statistics most sites quote rarely say which one they used. The Census Bureau's two household surveys put the count at 28.2 million and 39.6 million, and a moving marketplace counted 15 million adults. This report names the publisher, the method and the date behind every figure, so the numbers can be checked and compared on the same page.

It's written for moving businesses, franchise buyers, real estate analysts and anyone who quotes moving industry statistics in a deck or a business plan. It covers the market size, the number of moving companies, moving costs, the peak moving season, state migration data, why people move, scams, military and international moves, and where the forecasts fall short.

Americans moving each year: three counts that disagree

The Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey found 11.8% of people aged 1 and over had moved in the past year, about 39,597,955 people. That's the largest count any publisher reports. The Census Bureau's own story on the ACS series shows the share was about 14% in 2019 and roughly 13% in 2021, so the long slide hasn't stopped.

The Current Population Survey reports a smaller number. In 2022, 8.7% of people moved, about 28.2 million, according to the Census Bureau's September 2023 analysis by survey statistician Kristin Kerns-D'Amore. More people moved locally than over long distance: 53.5% stayed in the same county, the lowest share since 1948, when it was 67.0%.

Private data on Americans moving lands lower still, which is par for the course for a sample drawn from one company's records. HireAHelper's 2026 Migration Report, built on Porch Group data, counted 14,977,223 adult moves in 2025, or 4.46% of adults. Of those, 78.49% stayed inside one state and 3,221,023 crossed a state line.

The gap between counts of Americans moving isn't an error in any one survey. The ACS asks every household member where they lived a year ago, the CPS asks it in a smaller supplement each spring, and Porch counts adults whose address changed in its records. Pick one series, focus on it and track it over time, the same way you'd read the secondary market intelligence behind any market model.

Across a lifetime the totals add up, and more people move in early adulthood than at any later age. The average American can expect to move 11.7 times, based on the Census Bureau's migration expectancy method using 2007 ACS data. At age 18 a person can expect 9.1 more moves; by 45, only 2.7.

Moving industry market size: why the published estimates diverge

Every house that sizes the moving market counts something different. IBISWorld counts revenue of firms classed as moving services. Technavio models growth for a forecast window. A franchise brand repeats a figure from a third party. One self-move company files its revenue with the SEC. Line them up and the moving industry runs from $5.8 billion to $25.7 billion, a range that matters to anyone pricing moving companies for sale.

The IBISWorld figure for 2026 sits $2.8 billion above the BBB figure for 2028, so the two can't both describe the same set of companies. Technavio's expected 4% rate is nearly double IBISWorld's five-year 2.1%. Read between the lines and the houses agree on one thing: nobody expects fast growth.

The BLS figure is the floor, and the devil's in the details of what each house counts. Movers paid $5.82 billion in labor compensation in 2025, up from $5.15 billion in 2019, and payroll is the biggest line in most moving businesses' costs and in their plan for each season. Any revenue estimate has to sit well above that number, and all three do.

How many moving companies are in the United States

IBISWorld counts 9,430 moving services businesses in 2026, up 1.9% from 2025 and growing 1.3% a year since 2021. The market is fragmented: 9,430 businesses sharing $25.7 billion works out to about $2.7 million in revenue each. Most are small, local moving companies, which fits the wider pattern in our small business statistics.

The headcount is shrinking even as the count of moving companies grows. The BLS employment index for used household and office goods moving, NAICS 484210 in the Transportation and Warehousing sector, fell from 106.0 in 2022 to 93.1 in 2025, with 2017 set at 100. That's a 12.2% drop in three years.

Labor is the bitter pill to swallow for anyone who plans to open a moving business. Owners are paying more for a smaller workforce: labor compensation rose 13% between 2019 and 2025 while the employment index sat below its 2017 level in 2025. The trade group is working the labor shortage from its side: the ATA's Moving & Storage Conference listed workforce development among its priorities at its March 2026 meeting.

Moving costs: local move, long distance moves and interstate move pricing

A medium-sized local move with full service professional movers costs an average of $1,480, and a labor-only booking runs $445.50, according to HireAHelper's moving cost data, built from moves booked on its platform. Labor-only jobs save money because the customer rents and drives the moving truck, packs the boxes and handles the rest of the process.

Long distance moves cost an arm and a leg next to a local job: HireAHelper's top long-distance figure of $6,500 is 4.4 times its $1,480 local average, and published averages for long distance moves spread wider. HireAHelper puts a 2 to 3 bedroom home moving 1,200 miles at $2,000 to $6,500.

moveBuddha's cost calculator quotes local moves at $301 to $3,512 and long distance moves at $2,509 to $11,641, depending on home size and how far the truck runs. Farther distances add fuel, driver hours and days of truck time, so the price climbs with every mile.

• Local move, full service, medium home: $1,480 average (HireAHelper)
• Local move, labor only: $445.50 average (HireAHelper)
• Storage, packing and insurance: priced as separate costs on top of the average
• Long distance, 2 to 3 bedrooms, 1,200 miles: $2,000 to $6,500 (HireAHelper)
• Long distance range across home sizes: $2,509 to $11,641 (moveBuddha)

The industry's own price series shows how fast moving costs have climbed. The BLS producer price index for used household and office goods moving stood at 136.4 in January 2020 and 197.2 in August 2026. Moving companies that compete on competitive pricing are working against a 44.6% rise in what the industry charges, and customers see it in every moving estimate.

For an interstate move, federal rules set the ceiling on the bill, and interstate quotes are usually built from shipment weight and miles. The FMCSA's moving FAQ says a customer isn't required to pay more than 100% of a binding estimate or 110% of a non-binding estimate at delivery.

An interstate move is any move of goods between states, and the FMCSA notes the truck doesn't have to cross a state line itself for the rule to apply. Some moving guides say an interstate move starts at 450 miles. The FMCSA's own definition, goods moving “between a state and a place outside of that state,” sets no mileage threshold, so a short hop from Newark to Manhattan still counts as an interstate move.

Insurance is where customers of moving companies get burned. The FMCSA's valuation guide says full value protection makes the mover responsible for replacement value of lost or damaged goods, and it's the default. The free alternative, released value, pays no more than 60 cents per pound per article, so a 25-pound TV pays out $15. Every interstate move estimate should state which option applies, and what that insurance costs.

Peak moving season and the busiest time to move

About 45% of all moves take place from May through August, according to HireAHelper's booking database, and the firm's 2023 studies put the share between 45% and 52%. That leaves roughly 55% spread across the other eight months, which is why October through April is the slow stretch for moving companies and why demand for crews swings so hard each year.

August was the single most active month for migration in 2025 in Porch's data, especially in the Southeast. The busiest time of the week is Monday, with 19% of moves, according to moveBuddha's moving industry statistics, last updated 2 September 2026.

Book in advance for the peak moving season. The early bird catches the worm here: when people plan a summer move date, they compete with roughly half the year's demand for the same crews.

Where people are moving: state migration data by source

The Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates put North Carolina first for net domestic migration at about 84,000 people between July 2024 and July 2025, the top destination for people moving between states. Texas added about 67,000, South Carolina about 66,000 and Tennessee about 42,000, per state demographer Michael Cline. The Census Bureau's 27 January 2026 release puts South Carolina at 66,622 and Florida at 22,517, down from 310,892 in 2022.

Moving companies publish their own rankings from their own trucks, and they don't agree with the Census Bureau or with each other on which destination leads the country.

United Van Lines ranked Oregon (65%), West Virginia (62%) and South Carolina (61%) as its top inbound states for 2025, with New Jersey (62%), New York (58%) and California (58%) topping departures. United Van Lines has tracked these trends since 1977 and ranks only states with 250 or more moves. In its 2025 study Texas and Florida turned balanced, and Illinois was balanced for the first time in more than 10 years.

U-Haul's index tells a different story. Texas came back to No. 1, Florida rose to second, North Carolina held third, Tennessee was fourth and South Carolina fell from first to fifth. Washington, Arizona, Idaho, Alabama and Georgia filled out the top 10. Florida hasn't ranked below fourth in any of the 11 years since the index began in 2015, and California ranked last for the sixth straight year.

moveBuddha's 2024 route research measures arrivals against departures. South Carolina led with an in-to-out ratio of 2.05, North Carolina was second at 1.73, Maine third at 1.62 and Tennessee fourth at 1.60. A ratio of 2.05 means about two households moved in for every one that left.

The two van lines and the rental fleet count different customers. United Van Lines and Atlas count only households that hired their agents for a full service move. U-Haul counts do-it-yourself renters. The Census Bureau counts everyone. Getting a team on the same page starts with naming which population a ranking measures, the same discipline our real estate statistics apply to housing data.

At the metro level, United Van Lines' top inbound areas were Eugene-Springfield, Oregon (85%), Wilmington, North Carolina (83%) and Dover, Delaware (79%). Analysts who map this flow at the ZIP-code level use the tools in our location intelligence platforms ranking.

Why people move: housing, family and jobs

Housing is the top reason in federal data, from a bigger home to a cheaper one. In the 2022 Current Population Survey, 41.6% of movers gave a housing-related reason and 26.5% a family-related one, with job-related reasons among the least common categories. With 53.5% of moves staying inside one county, housing reasons take the lion's share.

Long-distance movers answer differently. The United Van Lines 2025 survey found 29% moved to be closer to family, 26% for a new job or company transfer and 14% for retirement. U-Haul International president John Taylor tied one-way rentals to life events: marriage, children, a death in the family, college and jobs.

• Housing-related reasons: 41.6% of all movers (Census CPS, 2022)
• Family-related reasons: 26.5% of all movers (Census CPS, 2022)
• Closer to family: 29% of interstate movers (United Van Lines, 2025)
• New job or transfer: 26% (United Van Lines, 2025)
• Retirement: 14% (United Van Lines, 2025)

Age shapes the plans too. North American Van Lines, citing an American Home Shield survey, reports that millennials and Gen Z are the largest groups planning to relocate in 2026, which lines up with the Census Bureau's finding that more people move before 45 than after.

Remote work loosened the job tie for some households. The BLS reported that 22.6% of workers teleworked in March 2026, a share our remote work statistics track month by month. A worker who can log in from anywhere can follow cost of living to South Carolina or Tennessee without a transfer.

Home sales set the ceiling for owner moves. Existing-home sales fell to 4.09 million in 2023, the lowest since 1995, according to the National Association of Realtors. Home sales at that level cap how many owners book professional movers in a year.

How people move: professional movers, truck rentals and moving containers

Most households do at least part of the work themselves, and no move is stress free, with or without help: HireAHelper's 2025 survey found 55% of Americans rate moving as highly stressful and 22% were hurt during a move. A moveBuddha survey of 1,500 people asked how they'd move: 37.5% would rent a truck and move themselves, 24.1% would do it with no rentals or pros, 22.7% would hire full service movers and 15.7% would use moving containers.

U-Haul's numbers show the scale of the do-it-yourself side, where the customer loads the moving truck and professional movers are optional. U-Haul Holding reported self-moving equipment rental revenue of $3.81 billion in fiscal 2026, up 2.3%, from a fleet of about 204,800 trucks, 136,600 trailers and 42,000 towing devices. U-Haul reports those truck rentals in a filing with the SEC, the only company revenue figure on this page that goes to a regulator.

Storage is the faster-growing line, and storage costs follow the customer past moving day. U-Haul's self-storage revenue rose 8.3% to $972.4 million, across 1,624 owned locations. Short and long term storage, car shipping, packing, crating and debris removal are the add ons full service moving services quote separately, and they push a $1,480 job higher. Customers with car shipping or debris removal on the list should get each line priced in writing.

International moves and military relocation services

Moves from abroad made up 4.9% of all movers in the 2022 CPS, up from 2.3% in 2021, a drop in the bucket next to 28.2 million total movers. International moves sit in a separate corner of the moving services industry, and many international moves need long term storage at one end while paperwork clears.

The Department of Defense buys relocation services at a scale few employers match. GAO reported that DOD ships about 300,000 personal property shipments a year at a cost of about $2 billion. Its Global Household Goods Contract, worth up to $17.9 billion over about 9 years and awarded in November 2021, was terminated in June 2025 after DOD spent more than $100 million on it.

Corporate and military moves run on the same carrier networks, and both are long distance work. The American Trucking Associations' Moving & Storage Conference represents the van lines and agents that haul these shipments, and its members met in Nashville in March 2026, after the Defense Secretary announced changes to military relocations in January.

Moving scams, complaints and red flags

The FMCSA's Operation Protect Your Move targeted 78 household goods carriers and brokers in April 2024 and found 665 violations, 403 of them commercial. Investigators addressed 380 complaints, 128 of them hostage loads, where a mover holds belongings until the customer pays more than the estimate.

Hostage complaints grew as a share of the total: they made up 27.90% of household goods complaints in 2024, up from 17.92% in 2020, even though total complaints peaked in 2021. The FMCSA's guidance names no standard deposit for moving services and lists a demand for cash or a large deposit as a red flag. New Jersey (15), Florida (12), Texas (11) and Nevada (10) held the most targeted carriers.

Seven of the eleven red flags the FMCSA lists for a rogue mover:

• No on-site inspection, with an estimate given by phone or online, sight unseen
• No written moving estimate, or a price set after loading
• A demand for cash or a large deposit before the move
• Blank documents to sign
• No copy of the Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move booklet
• A website with no local address and no registration or insurance details
• A rental truck on moving day in place of a company-marked fleet truck

The first step in the hiring process is to look up the mover's U.S. DOT number in the FMCSA's search tool, which shows registration and complaint history before you sign anything.

Home survey estimates, mobile apps and how movers win customers

Technology adoption at the big van lines shows up in two places: video estimates and online move tracking. United Van Lines has moved part of its in-home survey work onto video. United Van Lines lets customers choose an in-person home survey or a virtual home survey to size their moving needs, and its MyUnited Move Portal lets them book online and track moving milestones, a form of transparent tracking for a long distance move.

United Van Lines also offers short and long term storage through the same process.

Customer portals and mobile apps now carry the paperwork, the inventory list and the moving tips for each stage of a move. United Van Lines' portal hosts a library of moving tips next to the booking tools. Complaints still go through the FMCSA's National Consumer Complaint Database, the contact point when a mover won't respond. Customers who contact the FMCSA should include the mover's U.S. DOT and MC numbers.

For moving businesses, the demand signals that drive these tools come from the same data covered on this page: migration, home sales and job changes. Our real estate market intelligence guide covers the housing side, and the real estate data providers ranking covers who sells listing and transaction data.

Moving industry trends heading into 2027

The moving industry is slow right now, by every measure that tracks the trends. IBISWorld puts 2026 growth at 0.3%. Porch counted 1.3 moves per 10,000 residents in 2025, down from 2.4 in 2024. United Van Lines described 2025 residential moves as similar to 2024.

Atlas Van Lines president Ryan McConnell put it plainly in the firm's December 2025 release: "Americans are still moving, albeit at changing rates." Atlas named affordability as the top factor in choosing a destination, citing the cost of homeownership and limited inventory.

Three trends will matter heading into 2027:

• Southern demand: South Carolina, Texas and Tennessee joined the Census leader in the top four domestic gains of 2025
• Higher prices with fewer workers: PPI up 44.6% since 2020, employment index down 12.2% since 2022
• Stalled owner moves: existing-home sales at 4.09 million in 2023, a 28-year low

Expected growth is thin across every forecast of moving services in the country: 0.3% for 2026 at IBISWorld, 1.1% a year at the BBB figure, 4% at Technavio. Heading into 2027, moving businesses have to bite the bullet on a labor bill that rose 13% since 2019 against near-flat revenue growth.

How moving industry statistics are tracked

Federal data comes from household surveys. The ACS and the CPS supplement ask about moves in different samples and months, which is why their counts differ. The Census Bureau's annual population estimates measure net migration, the difference between people arriving and leaving, and say nothing about how many moving companies did the work.

Company data comes from each firm's own books, and analysts should keep an eye on the sample behind each one. United Van Lines counts UniGroup moves, U-Haul counts one-way rentals, and HireAHelper counts bookings plus Porch address changes. Each is straight from the horse's mouth for its own customers and silent about everyone else.

Treat each study as one piece of research in a set of moving industry statistics, and combine them using the market research methods any analyst would apply. A freight or logistics team that needs truck-level demand can add the platforms in our freight intelligence ranking.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the largest moving company in the US?

U-Haul Holding posts the largest revenue figure of any company on this page: $6.04 billion in fiscal 2026, $3.81 billion of it from self-moving equipment rental. Among full service van lines, United Van Lines calls itself America's #1 mover, a claim the company makes about itself and doesn't explain on its homepage.

How many moving companies are there in the USA?

IBISWorld counts 9,430 moving services businesses in the US in 2026, up 1.9% from 2025. Most are local moving companies serving local move and full service moving needs in one metro, and their average crew works the same peak months as the national van lines.

Is the moving industry slow right now?

Yes. IBISWorld puts 2026 revenue growth at 0.3%, Porch data shows moves per 10,000 residents falling from 2.4 in 2024 to 1.3 in 2025, and the BLS employment index for movers fell 12.2% from 2022 to 2025.

How often do most Americans move?

About 11.8% of people moved in the past year in the 2024 ACS. Over a lifetime, the Census Bureau estimates the average American moves 11.7 times.

What is the #1 state people are moving out of?

New Jersey led United Van Lines' 2025 outbound list at 62%. California ranked last in the U-Haul Growth Index for the sixth straight year and had the largest net loss in HireAHelper's data, 98,568 residents.

What are the top 10 states people are relocating to?

The U-Haul Growth Index top 10 for 2025: Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Washington, Arizona, Idaho, Alabama and Georgia.

Which cities are people most interested in moving to in 2026?

United Van Lines' highest inbound metros for 2025 were Eugene-Springfield, Oregon (85%), Wilmington, North Carolina (83%) and Dover, Delaware (79%). Atlas Van Lines recorded 38% of Arkansas inbound moves going to Bentonville.

What are red flags with movers?

The FMCSA lists estimates given sight unseen, no written estimate, demands for cash or a large deposit, blank documents and a rental truck on moving day.

Bottom line

The moving industry is a $25.7 billion business that grew 0.3% in 2026, with fewer workers charging 44.6% more than in early 2020. For customers, that means higher costs and a bigger reason to read every moving estimate before the truck arrives; a stress free move starts with full value protection in writing. For moving companies, it means growth has to come from price and add ons, because the count of people moving isn't rising.

Every count on this page depends on its source. The Census Bureau's surveys say 28.2 million or 39.6 million people move, North Carolina gained the most residents, and the carriers each crown a different state. Name the house, the year and the method each time one of these industry statistics goes into a plan, and the numbers stay comparable from one past report to the next.