New Hampshire State House
Americans continue to vote with their feet. A new white paper from New Hampshire State Rep. Joe Sweeney explains why the Granite State continues to attract Americans fleeing high-tax states.
The full report can be found here.
Sweeney’s report, The Granite State Migration, finds that New Hampshire’s population growth since the COVID-19 pandemic has been driven entirely by migration, with most newcomers arriving from Massachusetts. More importantly, the people making the move are looking for lower taxes, a lower cost of living, and the economic freedom that has long defined the Granite State.
The report comes as Americans continue relocating from high-tax, high-cost states to states that embrace lower taxes and limited government. Whether it is Florida, Texas, Tennessee, or New Hampshire, the trend is increasingly clear: taxpayers are rewarding pro-growth policies by choosing to live where they can keep more of what they earn.
According to Sweeney’s analysis, New Hampshire gained more than 40,000 net migrants between 2020 and 2024 despite experiencing more deaths than births. Nearly three-quarters of that growth came from domestic migration, with Massachusetts accounting for the largest share of new residents. IRS migration data also show that the households moving into New Hampshire earned significantly more income than those leaving, resulting in billions of dollars flowing into the state.
For years, critics argued that migration from Massachusetts would eventually turn New Hampshire into another liberal New England state. Sweeney’s report finds little evidence to support that claim. Among more than 236,000 voters who registered after March 2020, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by nearly 18,000, while modeled voter data found substantially more Republican-leaning than Democratic-leaning registrants. Although voter registration data alone cannot prove that migrants themselves are responsible for that shift, the findings suggest New Hampshire’s low-tax policy model continues to appeal to new voters who are not shifting the state’s politics to the left.
That should come as little surprise. New Hampshire is one of the few states without either a broad-based income tax or a statewide sales tax. It ranks among the nation’s most competitive tax systems while maintaining one of the lowest overall tax burdens in the country. Those policies have helped make New Hampshire an attractive destination for families, workers, entrepreneurs, and employers alike. It is no wonder that voters seek to uphold that model at the state level by supporting candidates like Governor Kelly Ayotte who have signed the Pledge against new and higher taxes, while simultaneously supporting legislation that lowers the tax burden even further.
As Massachusetts residents continue to flee north toward the “Live Free or Die” state, they help tilt the balance of power toward those who oppose the high-tax, big-government policies of their old home. Republicans currently control the House and Governor’s mansion in New Hampshire, plus a supermajority in the Senate, and Sweeney has twice won his competitive legislative races by roughly 60-40 margins. Lawmakers have a mandate to continue protecting the New Hampshire Advantage by keeping taxes low, restraining spending, and expanding housing and development opportunities.
And as more overtaxed families move in from Massachusetts, New Hampshirites can trust Pine Tree Public Policy Institute’s data that show these new residents do support the policies of freedom that attracted them north in the first place.
