04-03-2025
IRS data shows most Vermonters stay put: What the numbers say about those who moved in
For three years in a row, more people have moved into Vermont than out, and many of them were well-off, according to data from the IRS.
The nonprofit Public Assets Institute in Montpelier analyzed recently released IRS data from tax filings in 2022 to determine that two of the years of growth in Vermont's population occurred during the COVID pandemic in 2021 and 2022. More than half of the people arriving in Vermont in 2022 were so-called millennials − the generation born between 1981 and 1996 − and a quarter of those who moved here had incomes of $100,000 or more annually.
The IRS has collected data on movement of the population between states for more than 35 years, based on tax filings, and in 2012 the agency also started tracking migration by age and income of the primary filer. Public Assets points out that because of how the data are collected, they can see only the age of the person filing the return and the total number of exemptions, which they use as a proxy for the number of people in the household.
The IRS data does not include specific information on the makeup of households, however, such as the number and ages of children. Neither does the data distinguish how much of the total income was received before or after the taxpayer arrived in Vermont.
Public Assets drew the following conclusions from the IRS data:
Half of all filers who moved into Vermont in 2022 were 26 to 44 years old, an age range that closely matches the millennial generation. It appears some in that age group arrived with children, but it's impossible to know how many. The state saw a decrease in only one age bracket: filers under 26. Vermont saw a drop of about 500 people in their early 20s, but in all other age brackets, from young professionals to seniors, Vermont saw population growth from migration, wtih millennials accounting for the largest share of overall growth.
The IRS data on income undercut an often repeated claim that the wealthy are fleeing Vermont, according to Public Assets. From 2012 to 2022, Vermont had a net gain in filers with incomes of $200,000 or more in all but one year. In 2022, for every three filers in that income bracket who left the state, five moved in. Based on the most recent data, Vermont saw net gains among filers with incomes of $50,000 or more and net losses among filers earning less than $50,000. Just more than half of the filers who moved out of the state earned less than $50,000.
Nearly half of all people who moved out of Vermont in 2022 stayed in the northeastern United States, with more than a third relocating across the border to a neighboring state. This was also true for people moving into Vermont − more than a third moved from New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Overall, only about 3% of Vermonters moved out in 2022, which has been the pattern for 30 years. We like it here.
Contact Dan D'Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@ Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: IRS data shows wealthy millennials moved to Vermont during COVID
