The Lone Star State has attracted millions of new residents from across the country for decades, advertising its low taxes, abundance of jobs and warm weather. But a recent analysis suggests eager movers should pause before making the switch.
According to a ranking by ConsumerAffairs — which assessed each state based on a mix of affordability, economy, education and health, quality of life and safety — Texas is the third-worst state to move to in 2024, sitting behind California and New Mexico and just ahead of Louisiana and Alaska. The culprits for Texas’ low ranking were its scores in health and education, affordability and safety, while the states that scored best were Utah, New Hampshire and Idaho. Not a single southern state placed in the top 10.
Health and education is where Texas hurt the most, finishing dead last among all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The three metrics used to assess health and education were the percentage of the population covered by insurance, high school graduation rate and quality of care, where Texas ranked lowest, second-lowest and in the bottom quarter, respectively.
Affordability was determined by regional price parity, median household income and median annual property taxes, where Texas ranked 41st. The safety rating, which involved property crime rate, violent crime rate and the ratio of law enforcement to population, put Texas 38th. The state also ranked 37th in economy, which considered poverty rate, population growth, unemployment rate and home value.
Texas did, however, score highly in quality of life — assessed by road quality, weather and percentage of people who use public transit to get to work — placing 16th.
The state’s poor performance in this analysis runs contrary to migration trends, which consistently place the state among the most coveted in the country for its abundance of job opportunities, warm weather and low taxes.
According to the United States Census Bureau, more than nine million people made the switch to Texas between 2000 and 2022, more than three million ahead of Florida in second place. Some 29% of its population gain since 2000 is due to domestic net migration and a further 22% from net international migration, mostly into the Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio metro areas. Texas netted an average of more than 400,000 new residents a year between 2000 and 2022, the most in the nation by a considerable distance.
A prior analysis by ConsumerAffairs from January 2023 to March 2024 placed Texas fifth in net migration behind North and South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee.
