While Montana has been one of the leading states in attracting newcomers over the past few years, not all of them stay. They don’t “stick,” according to moveBuddha.com.

Montana had the second least “stickiness” in the nation in 2024. Montana loses 87% of its movers to other states. The only other state, which was more prone to losing their residents to out-migration was Alaska losing 90 percent. Wyoming is third at 86%.

The study that moveBuddha conducted revealed that seven of the least sticky states were in the Mountain West. The study analyzed over 175,000 searches on their moving cost calculator to get real-time insights into where relocating Americans plan to move. They ranked all 50 states by their stickiness – “their ability to keep relocating residents within state lines.”

The study aligned the rankings of statewide economic data and quality-of-life indicators to see which factors might contribute to a state’s lack of stickiness.

The Mountain West is home to 7 of the 10 least sticky states of 2024.

But just because a state was low in stickiness, didn’t mean they ceased attracting additional new comers. Montana, in addition to being among the most low stickiness states, continues to gain new residents. Montana maintains positive in-to-out move ratios.

In fact, Montana has the highest in-to-out move ratio in the country since 2020, averaging 2.37 new residents from beyond state lines for every Montanan who leaves.

The study found that the reasons people leave a state has most to do with the cost of living and real estate prices, rather than GDP growth or jobs. In short, high overall costs mean more residents will call it quits, even though newcomers may still find the state appealing.

“Many of these states have grown their populations enough to see local prices soar and locals panic. Real estate prices increase, and more newcomers come, but others are forced to leave an economy that’s leaving them behind.”