Every year people move in and out of Washington state. It's a constant flow. An interesting statistic is that last year fewer people moved to Washington state from other US states than in previous years. The interesting part of this story is that the number of people moving to Washington state from other countries was up, significantly. 

According to seattletimes.com,
A lot fewer people moved to Washington from other states last year than the year before the pandemic started, new driver’s license data shows. But the number moving to Washington from other countries surged.’ 

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Back in 2019, there were only about 10,000 drivers' licenses issued in Washington state. During that same time, people from other countries who got driver's licenses numbered up near 10,000. Now compare that with last year. Nearly 23,000 drivers' licenses were issued to people from other countries. 

The largest decrease in people moving to Washington state from other states includes Virginia, Illinois, Alaska, Oregon, With the largest difference being found from California. That number dropped by 7095 Between 2019 and 2024. 

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As far as people moving to Washington state from outside the country, we only have numbers from Canada. The total number of licenses last year that were issued to Canadians who moved to Washington state total to proximately 2,800 that's up about 83% from 2019. 

Canadian Flag over Okanagan Lake near Peachland British Columbia Canada
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We do have the numbers. For all of the people from outside the country that got driver's licenses in Washington state, it's astounding. It comes to about 22,000, an increase of approximately 133%. 

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What we don't have an answer for is why are all these people from outside the country moving to Washington state? My best guess is it's for employment. Considering the large number of high-tech job opportunities there are in Washington state this would be the easy answer.
WA sees shift in where new residents are moving from | The Seattle Times
WA sees big shift in who moves to the state | The Seattle Times

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