Madison and Milwaukee make U-Haul’s annual list of top cities for net migration

Madison and Milwaukee are both included in U-Haul’s annual “growth cities” list of the top 25 cities in the U.S. in terms of net migration for do-it-yourself movers.

Madison ranked 5th on the 2020 U-Haul net migration list and Milwaukee ranked 13th. Neither city was included in U-Haul’s 2019 list, but Madison ranked 9th in the 2018 list.

Growth cities are calculated by the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks entering a city versus leaving that city in a calendar year. The company says its migration trends data is compiled from more than 2 million annual U-Haul truck customer transactions. Neighboring cities in certain markets are packaged together for U-Haul migration purposes, the company says.

Phoenix-based U-Haul has a network of 22,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada with a fleet of 176,000 trucks, 127,000 trailers and 41,000 towing devices.

Madison and Milwaukee are two of the few Midwest cities on the U-Haul list of top cities for net migration. The list is dominated by cities in warm weather states, especially Florida which has 5 cities on the list. The Southeast region has 13 cities on the list, which the Midwest only has 3.

Here’s the full 2020 U-Haul list of its top 25 U.S. growth cities:

1. North Port, Florida
2. Kissimmee, Florida
3. Port St. Lucie, Florida
4. Auburn-Opelika, Alabama
5. Madison
6. Ocala, Florida
7. Knoxville, Tennessee
8. Surprise, Arizona
9. St. George, Utah
10. Tyler, Texas
11. Sacramento-Roseville, California
12. Johnson City-Kingsport, Tennessee
13. Milwaukee
14. Asheville, North Carolina
15. Huntsville, Alabama
16. Redding, California
17. Charleston, South Carolina
18. Athens, Georgia
19. Colorado Springs, Colorado
20. Edmond, Oklahoma
21. Fort Wayne, Indiana
22. Augusta, Georgia
23. Melbourne, Florida
24. Conroe, Texas
25. Fort Collins, Colorado