Many readers may be familiar with the ‘Waffle House index,’ an informal metric used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to determine the impact of a hurricane or other storm. The gist of it is to see whether a particular Waffle House in a storm-affected area is able to stay open with a full menu – meaning the restaurant has power and damage is limited. The index has three levels, Green means full menu, Yellow means a limited menu with no power or only a generator, and Red means the restaurant is closed, indicating severe damage or flooding.
The Big Mac Index is used by the Economist as a way of determining the purchasing power between currencies. With McDonald’s all over the world, the Economist can compare how much a Big Mac costs in different countries and measure the cost of goods and exchange rates.
These are two prominent examples of the effectiveness of using private business in measuring real-life situations. Companies with many locations spread across a country can be quite illustrative in getting an on the ground view of an area.
In the United States, when you go to move, there are a few companies available for moving equipment and storage. By far one of the biggest though is U-Haul. When looking to measure in-country migration, U-Haul is able to collect as much data as nearly any government agency. Recently the moving company released its 2019 annual report, which contains nationwide statistics on customers’ moving patterns. “Although U-Haul migration trends do not correlate directly to population or economic growth, the Company’s growth data is an effective gauge of how well cities and states are attracting and maintaining residents,” reads the report.
According to the report, Georgia is the number 16 growth state in the country. It moved up 19 spots from its ranking last year. It was the first time the state was a net-gain for U-Haul truck customers in the last five years.
Florida moved ahead of Texas as the top growth state in 2019. Texas had been number one for the previous three years. Behind Florida and Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington rounded out the top five.
Fitting a known trend, Illinois and California were tops for out-migration, with the largest number of moving trucks moving the wrong way across their borders.
“Growth States are calculated by the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks entering a state versus leaving that state during a calendar year. Migration trends data is compiled from more than 2 million one-way U-Haul truck-sharing transactions that occur annually,” said the report.
“Georgia arrivals of one-way U-Haul trucks were down about 2% while departures were down about 4% compared to the state’s 2018 numbers. Despite the overall dip in moving activity, arrivals accounted for a larger segment of all one-way U-Haul traffic in Georgia – 50.1% – to make it the No. 16 state for netting do-it-yourself movers.”
See myuhaulstory.com to view the complete state rankings
