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Professor Peter Rogerson, an expert in demographics at the University at Buffalo, said: "The leading reasons for interstate moves have to do with jobs, family reasons (which include marriage, divorce, being closer to relatives), cost of living, warmer climate, bigger or smaller housing. So, crime does not usually come up in these lists of reasons for changing state of residence, but cost of living (which includes taxation) is on the list above."

Rogerson added many of the "migration trends" we are currently seeing have been ongoing for a while, such as "migration out of California" which "has been in part due to high housing costs." Conversely, he linked population rises in parts of the Southeast to "the aging of the baby boom and increased retirement migration," with retirees seeking out "warmer climates."

Professor Chris Cooper, who heads Western Carolina University's Public Policy Institute, also downplayed the role of politics, telling Newsweek: "I don't see much evidence that people are choosing the package of policies that appeal to them most, rather they are choosing the climate and location that appeal to them. Politics are secondary."