Movement of people from one location to another at any geographic scale affects both the origin and the destination locations. When the rate of natural increase is low, an increasing share of population change may be attributed to migration, whether domestic or international. Domestic (or internal) migration is the movement of people within nation al boundaries, whereas international migration refers to movement across those boundaries. In the United States, according to Census 2000, over 22 million people were domestic migrants who changed their state of residence between 1995 and 2000. Of these domestic migrants, approximately half relocated to a state in a different region. This movement did not affect all states equally, however. Inmigration and outmigration levels varied widely, with markedly uneven results across the country.

This report, the first of several address ing Census 2000 migration topics, dis cusses migration between regions, divisions, and states between 1995 and 2000. It provides an overview of migration patterns at the three geographic levels and shows which parts of the country gained and lost most from the movement of people within the United States. Although movement from abroad represents an important component of the country’s migration experience, this report concentrates solely on internal, or domestic, migration. Net migration rates complement migration flow numbers, and together the two measures summarize the effects of migration on regional, division, and state populations in the United States between 1995 and 2000.