6 States Sending the Most Retirees to Florida In 2026

Florida gained just 815 more seniors than it lost in 2025, according to HireAHelper’s latest relocation study.

That razor-thin net hides a busy revolving door.

Nearly 45,700 retirees moved in while almost as many packed up and left. The arrivals, though, keep flowing from a predictable set of origin states.

These are the places still feeding Florida’s retiree population, ranked by the most recent figures.

New York Still Sends the Most

New York remains Florida’s single largest source of retirees, and it isn’t close.

HireAHelper’s 2026 study counted 4,392 New Yorkers aged 65 and older relocating to Florida in 2025, well ahead of the next state on the list.

The flow tracks a long history.

University of Florida demographers have documented New York as the top sending state to central and south Florida going back decades, shaping counties from Palm Beach to Sarasota.

Cost drives the exodus. New York carries one of the heaviest tax burdens in the country.

IRS migration data analyzed by the Tax Foundation shows the state shed about 71,987 net tax filers to other states in the 2022 to 2023 period, second only to California.

Florida posted the nation’s largest net income gain from migration in 2023, and the average income of people moving into Florida from another state topped $122,530, the highest of any state.

For a retiree trading a Long Island property tax bill for a Florida homestead exemption, the math tends to win.

Florida collects no state income tax, a point WalletHub cited when it named Florida the best state to retire in 2025.

New York’s losses pile up fast.

That figure comes with a twist: North Carolina is also one of the top landing spots for retirees leaving Florida, part of the “halfback” trend of seniors moving halfway back north to the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Georgia.

The result is heavy two-way traffic on I-95.

Some retirees chase the Blue Ridge Mountains and lower insurance premiums.

Others still steer their moving trucks toward the Gulf and the Atlantic coast.

The churn is real. One Asheville broker told Realtor.com that roughly 40% of her retiree clients had come from Florida, citing heat, overdevelopment, and rising insurance and HOA costs as reasons they left.

Even so, Florida’s mild winters and tax structure keep the southbound lane full.

The Villages and Naples continue to pull new arrivals from across the Southeast, North Carolina included.

The Tar Heel State comes out ahead in the exchange.

North Carolina posted a net gain of 3,202 seniors in 2025, third-highest in the country, even as thousands of its retirees kept moving the other way.

Georgia, Just Up I-75

Georgia sits a close third, sending 2,813 retirees aged 65 and older to Florida in 2025, according to HireAHelper, nearly even with North Carolina.

Proximity does much of the work.

University of Florida researchers note that neighboring states like Georgia and Alabama feed the Panhandle and north Florida most heavily, where a move can mean a half-day drive rather than a cross-country haul.

Atlanta’s traffic and climbing housing costs push some retirees toward calmer Gulf towns and the Jacksonville area, an easy run down Interstate 75 or I-95.

The short distance cuts both ways.

Georgia is also a frequent destination for Floridians heading north, which adds to the steady back-and-forth between the two neighbors.

For retirees who want warmer weather without leaving the Southeast behind, the Georgia-to-Florida hop remains one of the most manageable moves on the board.

Georgia holds its own in the trade.

The state logged a net gain of 1,646 seniors in 2025, landing in the national top 10 even while it kept funneling thousands of retirees toward Florida.

New Jersey Heads South

New Jersey sent 2,257 residents aged 65 and older to Florida in 2025, HireAHelper found, holding its place among the top feeders.

The Garden State’s pull toward Florida runs decades deep.

University of Florida research lists New Jersey alongside New York and Michigan as a dominant source for South Florida counties.

Taxes power the trend.

New Jersey posts some of the nation’s highest property taxes, and the Tax Foundation ranked its overall tax structure 49th out of 50 states for 2026.

IRS figures show New Jersey lost roughly 19,370 net tax filers in the 2022 to 2023 window.

The squeeze lands hardest at retirement.

Once a paycheck stops, New Jersey’s property tax bills and high cost of living press down on fixed incomes, which helps explain why so many of its 65-and-older residents point south toward no-tax Florida.

For a retiree on a fixed income, swapping a New Jersey property tax bill for a Florida condo can free up thousands of dollars a year.

The outflow shows up in the totals.

The state’s Florida pipeline runs from both ends, Philadelphia in the east and Pittsburgh in the west, with plenty of small-town movers in between.

IRS data places Pennsylvania among the larger net filer losers, shedding about 12,095 tax filers to other states in 2022 to 2023.

A good share of them pointed south.

Pennsylvania’s snowbirds have long favored Florida’s Gulf Coast, and communities around Cape Coral and Fort Myers fill with Keystone State plates every winter.

A Florida move carries an extra perk for some families.

Pennsylvania levies an inheritance tax, which Florida does not, giving heirs one more reason the trend keeps rolling.

The numbers back it up.

Pennsylvania recorded a net loss of 1,678 seniors in 2025, and its winter migration toward Florida and the Carolinas has held steady for years.

Illinois and the Chicago Pipeline

Illinois doesn’t appear in HireAHelper’s published top five for senior arrivals, but IRS migration data marks it as one of Florida’s most dependable feeders.

The state lost roughly 28,609 net tax filers in the 2022 to 2023 period, the third-largest outflow in the country behind California and New York, according to the Tax Foundation’s analysis of IRS records.

Chicago anchors the flow.

Harsh winters and high costs have made the Chicago-to-Florida retiree route a fixture for generations, with Gulf Coast and southeast Florida metros absorbing much of the traffic.

Ohio and Michigan trail close behind Illinois among Midwestern senders.

University of Florida researchers tie that pattern to the Rust Belt’s long pull toward Florida sunshine, a habit that shaped central Florida communities through boom and recession alike.

Illinois feels the drain at the senior level, too.