Census Data Shows Leading U.S. Cities for Millennials

Boosted in part by the strong surge of new jobs in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), Charlotte, N.C., has emerged as a leading city for young adults.

Charlotte gained 10,707 Millennials in 2015, the most in the nation, according to a report from financial technology company SmartAsset. To determine which cities had the highest net migration of Millennial movers, SmartAsset used data from the Census Bureau to calculate the number of people between ages 20 and 34 who moved to the city in 2015—the most recent year with available data—and subtracted the number of people who moved out.

Charlotte had 71,240 Millennials move into the city in 2015, and 60,533 move out. SmartAsset notes that the city was boosted by interstate relocations, as roughly 18,000 Millennials moved to Charlotte from outside the state of North Carolina that year.

Other popular destinations for young adults included Seattle (a positive net migration of 9,886 in 2015); Oakland, Calif. (7,494); Norfolk, Va. (7,198), and Fargo, N.D. (5,990). Spring Valley, Nev., San Francisco, Fort Collins, Colo., Denver, and St. Paul, Minn., rounded out the top 10, all with positive net migrations of 4,000 or more. Among states, Texas had the highest net migration for Millennials at 33,098 in 2015, followed by Washington (28,186), Colorado (24,925), North Carolina (19,902), and Virginia (18,814).