Over 130,000 moved to WA. Last year. Where did they come from?

There was this interesting statistic the other day in the Seattle Times. And it stated that over the past year, 2025. Over 130,000 people moved to Washington State. Now, depending on who you talk to, the reaction to that statement can be either “That's fantastic” Or “what were they thinking?” 

The more interesting fact to me is where did they actually move from? 

According to Seattletimes.com,
‘Last year, about 134,000 people who moved here from another state were issued Washington driver’s licenses or identification cards. That’s down by about 29,500, or 18%, from 2019, when the state issued nearly 164,000 driver’s licenses or identification cards to newcomers from other states.’ 

Washington State's net gain of population last year was approximately 9000. Pre-COVID population gains were a bit higher than post-COVID population gains.  

Where did they come from?

Using information from the Washington State Department of Licensing is very handy, and one of the nice things about it is that it Gives us information on where those people came from.  

Through 2025. If you look at data for 2019. There are only a few states that actually show emigration to Washington being higher, and those three states are? Maine, Texas, and Arizona. 

The largest percentage of migration actually comes from Maine. A 14% increase from 2019 to 2025 but the largest number of people migrating to Washington state came from Texas, from 10,000 to 10,800 people. 

Who sends the most?

Even with the drop in numbers, it turns out California sends the most people to Washington state. Last year about 26,500 people moved from California, but that's still down 30%. 

We also had people moving to Washington from Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Illinois, and Arizona, just to name a few.