How many people immigrated to Nevada in 2023?

Immigration to Nevada was up in 2023, with the Silver State seeing its highest percentage of moves from overseas in years, according to new data.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data shared with the Las Vegas Review-Journal by Brian Bonnenfant, the project manager at the Center for Regional Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno, 27,406 people from other countries moved to Nevada in 2023, making up 22.4 percent of all moves to the state.

This is up from 13,240 back in 2014 (10.2 percent) and 19,828 in 2019 (14.9 percent) before the pandemic started, data shows.

Bonnenfant said he will be paying close attention to those numbers over the next few years, as in 2023, the last available data, showed that immigrants made up close to a quarter of all migration to the state. He said the Trump’s administration stance on immigration may impact those numbers as the government starts to clamp down on international migration.

“The real story within the data is the amount of foreign migration coming into Nevada growing and it continued in 2024, however we are seeing these new policies that are kicking in that are probably going to kick the legs out from under that chair,” he said.

Bonnenfant said one of the other interesting stories is that census numbers also show 2019 as a potential high water mark for Californians moving to Nevada, however still down from 2014, when the state saw an all-time high. However, the data also shows Californians are making up a higher percentage of overall migration to the state, at 44.3 percent in 2023, which is up from 41.8 percent in 2019 and 41.8 percent back in 2014.

Domestic migration to Nevada was its highest back in 2014 (117,150), a number that dropped to 113,122 in 2019 and 94,813 in 2023.

“Overall domestic migration is on the decrease, but the number of Californians within that domestic number, the ratio, is on the increase, so although we are getting less people from 49 other states, California is becoming a higher representation of that domestic migration,” Bonnenfant said.

He said one potential explanation for this is that Californians are finding less and less affordable alternatives to migrate to as other states’ living expenses rise, meaning Nevada still remains a more affordable alternative even though our state’s living expenses are also on the rise.

“We’re still going to see that draw from California because of the tax structure, and the demographics, we’ve got the boomers that are now retired and want to pay less to live and California is just not getting better. They have a such a big deficit, they’re having to do cuts, freezes, they’ve got a lot of problems now, they’ve got buyers and insurance issues, so the push from California has grown.”

According to Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles driver’s license surrender numbers obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, more Californians moved to Nevada last year than in 2023, showing a potential turnaround in relocation trends.

In 2024, 38,970 Californians moved to the Silver State, topping the 2023 total of 36,507, according to driver’s license surrender numbers from the . The high water mark for Californians moving to Nevada was in 2021 (47,376) during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. That number dropped to 42,569 in 2022.

Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.