Where Are Retirees Moving? IRS Data on 65+ Movers and the Income They Take

By Craig Wear, CFP® | Last reviewed: October 26, 2026

Where are retirees moving now: Florida still leads the count, but the newest IRS data shows its net gain now comes entirely from households reporting $100,000 or more of AGI.

Retirees are moving mainly to Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee and Arizona. In the latest IRS migration data (returns filed in 2022 and 2023), Florida gained a net 8,422 tax households headed by someone 65 or older, North Carolina 6,631 and South Carolina 6,562, while California and New York lost the most.

Where are retirees moving, according to the latest IRS data?

Retirees are moving to the Southeast first, then the Sun Belt West. Ranked by net returns with a primary taxpayer 65 or older, the leaders are Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee and Arizona.

The figures below come from the IRS Statistics of Income migration data, which matches the addresses on the same filers’ returns in two consecutive years. The 2022-2023 release is the most recent the IRS has posted as of October 2026. Its gross migration file splits every state’s movers by the age of the primary taxpayer, and the cut below isolates the 65+ group.

Retiree migration is concentrated. Only 27 states gained older filers on net, and together they added 48,503 returns. The top five took 60.4% of that total.

The planning point is that most destination states are not income-tax-free. North Carolina, South Carolina, Arizona, Georgia, Alabama, Idaho and Delaware all levy an income tax, each with its own treatment of pensions, IRA withdrawals and Social Security. A state-by-state view of those rules sits in the guide to states that don’t tax retirement income in 2026, so it is not repeated here.

Which states are retirees leaving?

Retirees are leaving large, high-cost states, led by California and New York. Together with Illinois and New Jersey, those four states lost a net 38,736 returns headed by someone 65 or older and about $6.8 billion of AGI in the 2022-2023 data. For the wealth these households carry, see average retiree net worth by age.

The income gap is the detail most rankings miss. In every one of these eight states, older households leaving had higher average AGI than older households arriving. Massachusetts is the extreme case: leavers averaged $190,738, arrivals $129,456, so the state lost far more income ($891 million) than its modest return count suggests.

For a retiree weighing such a move, the federal rules travel with the account. A federal statute, 4 U.S.C. § 114, bars a state from taxing IRA, 401(k) and most pension income paid to someone who is no longer its resident; how that plays out for plan withdrawals is covered in whether you pay state tax on 401k withdrawals.

How much income do retirees take with them?

Older movers carry more income than older people who stay put. The 434,203 interstate 65+ returns reported $50.7 billion of AGI, an average of $116,861, compared with $109,754 for 65+ returns that did not move at all.

Measured by income rather than heads, Florida is in a league of its own. Its net AGI gain from older movers was more than five times South Carolina’s, even though its net return count was only about 28% higher. Arizona ranks sixth on returns but third on income, because its arrivals averaged $120,908 against $95,487 for its leavers.

Income is also lopsided within the mover group. Returns above $200,000 of AGI were 50,589 of the 434,203 older movers (11.7%), yet they reported 52.7% of the group’s AGI. Another 20.1% sat between $100,000 and $200,000.

That distribution matters for tax planning because high AGI in retirement usually reflects large pensions, required distributions or sizable taxable portfolios. Households in that position tend to have the most exposure to state income tax on traditional IRA dollars, which is why relocation and Roth conversion state taxes often get analyzed together.

Is Florida still the top state for retirees?

Yes by raw count, but its lead has narrowed sharply. Florida’s net 65+ gain fell from 20,256 returns in the 2021-2022 data to 8,422 in 2022-2023, while North Carolina and South Carolina held near their usual levels.

Two forces drove Florida’s drop. Older arrivals fell from 71,803 returns to 62,172, while older departures rose from 51,547 to 53,750. Arizona shows a quieter version of the same slide, from +10,180 to +3,188 over four releases.

The income split is the original finding here. In the 2022-2023 data Florida lost older filers on net in every AGI class below $50,000 (a combined 1,171 returns) and gained 8,714 on net at $100,000 and above. A year earlier it gained in every class. South Carolina and North Carolina, by contrast, still gained older filers in all seven AGI classes, from under $10,000 to over $200,000.

In plain terms, Florida is still drawing higher-income retirees while middle- and lower-income retirees are roughly breaking even or leaving. Housing and insurance costs are plausible drivers, but the IRS file records income, not motives, so that explanation remains an inference. For how income shapes the tax bill, see what retirees pay in federal income tax.

Why does South Carolina rank first per capita?

South Carolina gains the most older filers relative to the number it already has. Its net gain equals 14.4 per 1,000 of its 65+ returns, far above Florida’s 4.1, because its base of 457,193 older returns is less than a quarter of Florida’s 2,072,984.

The per-capita list reshuffles the map: South Carolina (14.4), Delaware (12.3), Idaho (8.5), North Carolina (7.9) and Tennessee (6.6) lead, and smaller states such as Maine (4.6) and New Hampshire (4.2) appear. At the bottom are Alaska (-10.9), the District of Columbia (-9.1) and New York (-8.2).

This lines up with commercial moving data reported by AARP, which placed South Carolina first for net 65+ moves in 2025 using a mover-company dataset rather than tax returns. Two very different sources agreeing on the Carolinas makes the shift away from a Florida-only story more credible.

For state finances the per-capita view is the one that matters. An extra 6,562 older households is a rounding error for a large state but a meaningful share of the retiree population, and the retirement-income tax base, in a state the size of South Carolina.

Do people move before or after they retire?

Many move before 65. Nationally, 1.60% of returns with a primary taxpayer aged 55 to 64 changed states, almost the same rate as the 1.57% for those 65 and older, and in several destination states the pre-retiree wave is larger.

Florida is the clearest case: it gained a net 20,514 returns from the 55 to 64 group, 2.4 times its 65+ gain. Arizona (+4,037 versus +3,188), South Carolina (+6,964 versus +6,562) and Tennessee (+4,002 versus +3,555) show the same pattern. Under-26 filers move far more often (6.24%), so retirees are not unusually mobile; they are unusually focused on a handful of destinations.

The timing has a tax angle. A household that relocates in its early 60s may have several low-income years between retirement and the start of Social Security and required minimum distributions, which begin at 73 for those born 1951 to 1959 and 75 for those born 1960 or later. Retirees in that window often look at delaying Social Security to fund Roth conversions, and the new state’s tax rules shape how attractive those years are.

How does a retirement move change Roth conversion math in 2026?

A move changes only the state line of the conversion bill; the federal tax is identical in every state. Because a conversion is taxed in the year it happens, the state of domicile on that date decides whether any state tax applies.

Consider a hypothetical married couple, both 63, who completed a documented move to a state with no income tax before January 1, 2026. They are retired, have not claimed Social Security, and expect $96,000 of pension and investment income in 2026. Using the 2026 joint federal income tax brackets from Rev. Proc. 2025-32, a conversion that fills the 22% bracket works out as follows.

The example shows why the order of events matters. The same $147,600 conversion carries the same $28,772 federal cost wherever the couple lives, but the state line depends entirely on domicile in the conversion year. Part-year residency and the “convert first or move first” question are covered in detail in moving to a no-tax state before a Roth conversion.

Two federal side effects travel with the move. A larger conversion raises modified AGI, which Medicare reviews two years later for IRMAA surcharges. Once both spouses are 65, the enhanced senior deduction of $6,000 each (2025 through 2028) also starts to phase out above $150,000 of joint MAGI, so conversions in those years can cost more than the bracket rate alone suggests.

Do no-income-tax states win the retiree race?

Only partly. The nine states without a broad income tax gained a net 16,082 older returns and $5.9 billion of AGI combined, but Florida alone supplied 8,422 of those returns and $5.1 billion of that income.

Outside Florida the picture is mixed. Texas (+4,125), Tennessee (+3,555), Nevada (+802) and New Hampshire (+638) gained, while Washington (-758), Alaska (-576) and South Dakota (-174) lost older filers on net. Meanwhile North Carolina and South Carolina, both income-tax states, each out-gained every no-tax state except Florida, and Arizona out-gained all of them except Florida, Texas and Tennessee.

That pattern suggests taxes are one input among several, alongside family, housing costs and climate. A composite view of how each state treats conversions, pensions and Social Security is in the 2026 Roth-conversion tax score by state, which complements the migration counts here.

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This article is for educational purposes only and is not individualized investment, tax, or legal advice. Consult a qualified professional about your specific situation.