Where people leaving Reno and Sparks move to

The table above lists the 25 counties that received the most people from Washoe County, which holds Reno and Sparks, in the Census Bureau's county-to-county flow file for 2016-2020. Each row gives a yearly average and a margin of error, because the numbers come from a survey sample rather than a head count.

• Largest flowClark County, Nevada
• Largest destination of people leaving Washoe CountyClark County, about 1,887 a year
• Second largestCarson City, about 1,362 a year

Data: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS county-to-county migration flows 2016-2020 (5-year, yearly averages with margins of error).

What the top of the table shows

Four of the first five destinations are in Nevada or are close neighbors of it. Clark County leads, Carson City is second, Lyon County sits fifth at about 772 people a year, and Elko, Douglas, Churchill and Storey counties also reach the list. Added together, the seven Nevada counties in the table receive roughly 5,600 people a year from Washoe County, which makes in-state moves the biggest block of people leaving.

Outside Nevada the pattern is spread out. Maricopa County (Phoenix area) and Sacramento County are the only two out-of-state counties above 800. San Diego, Placer, Kern, El Dorado and Los Angeles counties in California appear lower down, along with Collin County in Texas and counties in Oregon, Washington, Montana and Idaho.

How wide the margins of error are

The margin of error here is the range the Census Bureau gives at a 90 percent confidence level. For Clark County it is plus or minus 517, so the true yearly figure most likely falls between about 1,370 and 2,400. For Elko County the estimate is 596 but the margin is 452, which leaves a range of roughly 144 to 1,048.

Placer County (585, plus or minus 447) and San Diego County (484, plus or minus 446) show the same problem. When a margin is almost as large as the estimate, read the row as 'a real but small flow' and do not rank it against its neighbors. Only the first handful of rows, where the margin is well under half the estimate, can be compared with confidence.

Why outbound numbers need the inbound side

A list of destinations says nothing about balance. The Census file shows about 4,392 people a year moving from Clark County into Washoe County, more than double the 1,887 going the other way; the Las Vegas and Reno page covers that pair. Carson City is different: about 1,362 people a year leave Washoe for Carson City, while about 738 move back, a pattern explained on the Carson City migration page.

Putting both directions side by side is the only way to tell a place that is attracting Reno households from one that simply trades residents with Reno.

What it means for planning a move out of the Truckee Meadows

Most of these destinations are a short or medium drive from the Sparks warehouse, so they fall under local or in-state moving. A move to Carson City, Lyon County, Douglas County or Churchill County stays inside Nevada, and moves within Nevada are handled under O'Brien's Nevada Transportation Authority certificate. Moves to Arizona, Texas, Oregon or Washington are interstate and run through the Bekins network; see long-distance moving.

The in-home estimate is where the mileage, access and timing of your own move turn into a written number, so use these flows to understand the neighborhood of your destination and the estimate to plan the move itself.

What the data cannot tell you

The file counts people, not households, so a family of four moving once adds four to a row. It does not record why anyone left, what they owned, or whether they moved for work, school, family or housing. It also covers 2016-2020 as a five-year average, which smooths out single-year swings but means a recent shift, such as a new employer opening in another state, will not show up yet.