State sees people, money drain away.
Because of people moving away from Iowa, the state lost nearly $3.9 billion in annual adjusted gross income from 1992-2013.
How Money Walks, a website arguing that Americans are relocating to states with pro-growth tax policies, has ranked the five Iowa counties that contributed most to that loss. Its data comes from the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Census Bureau.
1. Polk County, which lost $649 million in adjusted gross income from 1992-2013. People tended to leave Polk for the Iowa counties of Dallas, Warren and Madison; plus Maricopa County, Arizona; and Douglas County, Nebraska.
2. Woodbury County, which lost $539 million. Woodbury lost population to Union and Minnehaha counties in South Dakota; Douglas County, Nebraska; and Polk and Plymouth counties in Iowa.
3. Black Hawk County, which lost $432 million in adjusted gross income. Its departing residents largely went elsewhere in the state: Polk, Linn, Bremer, Scott and Grundy counties.
4. Johnson County, which lost $372 million. This county lost residents to Polk County; Hennepin County, Minnesota; Maricopa County, Arizona; Cook County, Illinois; and Denver County, Colorado.
5. Story County, which lost $371 million, due largely to people moving to the Iowa counties of Polk, Boone and Dallas; plus Hennepin County, Minnesota; and Maricopa County, Arizona.
On the other hand, Dallas County gained more than $1 billion in adjusted gross income during that time, gaining new residents mostly from elsewhere in Iowa.
