According to a report released today by the Vermont Public Assets Institute, since the early 1990s, when the IRS started trackingmigration and income, people moving to Vermont haveconsistently reported higher average annual incomesthan the Vermont residents who were leaving.1The mostrecent data for 2010 shows that trend has continued.2
The numbers of people coming and going over the past18 years have seesawed. For 10 of those years morecame; for eight, more left. But since the peak of inmigrationin 2001, when a little more than 17,000 peoplerelocated to the state, the number of newcomers hasbeen declining. And since 2005, the number of Vermontresidents moving out each year has exceeded the numberof new arrivals.
Those coming to the state still have higher averageincomes. So, even in years when out-migration hasexceeded in-migration, the total personal income in thestate has increased.
In 2010, however, that changed. Vermont saw a netloss of income for the first time since the IRS began topublish this data. According to the latest report, 13,422people moved into Vermont in 2010. Their total adjustedgross income was $353.9 million. The same year, 14,071Vermonters moved away. Their income added up to a bitmore: $356.3 million.
Download a PDFof the report.
The IRS reports the number of income tax returns filed each year and thenumber of exemptions, including dependents, that are taken on those returns.The number of exemptions is considered to be a close approximation of thenumber of people who are moving into or out of Vermont. So ‘exemption’means ‘person’ in this report. There may be additional people moving intoor out of Vermont who have not filed an income tax return or who have notbeen claimed as an exemption on a filed return. [↩]
The numbers presented in this report involve the change from one yearto the next. The data labels reflect the most recent year of the two (e.g.,data labeled ‘2010’ refers to the change from 2009 to 2010). [↩]
Public Assets Institute, Jack Hoffman, January 31, 2012