Inbound Migration to Charlottesville – 2026

Just a short post answering a client’s recent question — “Where are the people moving to Charlottesville coming from?”

Where Are People Moving to Charlottesville From?

A client asked me recently: “Where are the people moving to Charlottesville coming from?”

Short answer? Everywhere. And almost as many leave.

Inbound Migration

A lot of my clients move to the Charlottesville area from other places, whether that’s to be close to kids and grandkids, for work at UVA or NGIC/DIA, or simply because they chose Charlottesville as their destination to live, and keep working remotely.

Here’s what the data says.

In 2022–23, about 11,035 people moved into the Charlottesville metro (Albemarle, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene and Nelson), according to IRS tax-return data. About 10,855 moved out. Net: +180.

That’s not a boom. That’s turnover.

Census survey data tells the same story in a different way.

Florida and North Carolina top the list of states. (The margins of error are wide. Past the top two, I wouldn’t put much stock in the ranking.)

One more pattern worth noting.

We gain people from other states (net +409) and lose people to the rest of Virginia (net −229), mostly to Waynesboro, Louisa and Richmond. Affordability? Probably part of it. The data can’t say, but the affordability and employment opportunities are my suspicions and experience.

The data tells me where. It can’t tell me why. And the why matters.

Where did you move here from, and why? Reply. I’m curious.

Where did you move here from, and why? Reply. I’m curious.

Sources: IRS county-to-county migration data, 2022–2023; U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2018–2022 state-to-county migration flows.