Benton County added more than 1,000 new residents in the most recent IRS tracking year. Most of those new residents were already Washingtonians when they moved, and despite a common refrain you might hear around the Tri-Cities, very few relocated from King County and the west side of the state.
Yes, I said "IRS" above -- not the Census Bureau. The IRS tracks the addresses on tax returns every year, and by comparing the number of returns filed in different markets from one year to the next, you get a very solid picture of domestic migration. (The non-partisan Tax Policy Center estimated a few years ago that 82% of U.S. adults who could file a tax return do.)
The only downside is that they're not exactly speedy about it. The most recent data, which I'm using for this article, covers changes between 2022 and 2023. So with all that said, let's look at who's moving to and from Benton County.
Who's Moving to Benton County?
According to that IRS data, 11,051 people moved to Benton County in between 2022 and 2023. Most are Washingtonians -- 6,750 people, or 61% -- moved here from somewhere else in the state.
The number one county that sent people to Benton Co. was ... drumroll, please ... Franklin County! Yep, our neighbors to the immediate northeast sent 2,895 people to Benton, which is more than 26% of all inbound Benton County residents and about 43% of the Washington residents who moved here. After Franklin County, Yakima holds the No. 2 spot -- 1,095 tax filers moved from there to Benton County.
Here are the top five counties where people lived before they moved to Benton County:
Who's Moving From Benton County?
The data showing where Benton County residents are moving to aren't much different.
Overall, the IRS says 9,981 people moved out of Benton County between 2022 and 2023. Of that group, 5,671 (or 57%) stayed in Washington and the other 43% moved out of state.
The top destination of people moving away from Benton County was...no surprise, perhaps...Franklin County, at 2,583 tax filers. That's 26% of all people leaving Benton County. And again, Yakima County is second on the list. Here are the top five counties where people leaving Benton County went:
The top three counties are the same both inbound and outbound. But while people from Grant and Walla Walla counties were moving in enough to make the top five, people were moving away to Spokane and Umatilla counties enough to make the top five.
King County and Benton County
I referenced this briefly at the start of the article. There's a sometimes common refrain around the Tri-Cities that King County and other westside residents are moving here in droves. Some locals are happy about that, and others not so much.
But it's not really true, as the IRS data shows. Between 2022 and 2023, only 470 people moved from King County to Benton County. And with 428 others moving from Benton to King, that means there was a net migration of 42 people who came to Benton County from King Co.
I looked at the list of counties where King County residents move to and Benton is way down the list at #36.
Pierce and Snohomish are the only other two westside counties in the top 10 for sending people to Benton County -- they were 8th and 9th respectively. Based on the IRS data, those two counties sent Benton a net gain of 98 people.
You might be wondering, What about Franklin County?? I'll cover that in a separate post soon. Stay tuned.
-Cari
