ST. LOUIS - Americans continue to move to the West and Southeast and away from parts of the Northeast and Midwest, according to an analysis of migration trends by the nation's largest mover.

United Van Lines has been tracking moving trends since 1977. The study of 227,254 moves handled by the company in 2006 in the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia was released Monday. It looked at all moves that involved either going to or leaving a state.

North Carolina had the highest inbound migration with 64 percent of moves going into the state. Oregon was second with 62.5 percent, followed by South Carolina (60.6), Nevada (59.9) and Idaho (59.3).

At the other end, Michigan and North Dakota tied for the most outbound migration. Nearly two-thirds of all moves in both states - 66 percent - were heading out. Other states with high outbound migration were New Jersey (60.9), New York (59.5) and Indiana (58.2).

Eight of the 10 winners in inbound migration were from the Southeast or West. The only exceptions were the District of Columbia, whose inbound migration of 57.9 percent tied for sixth, and South Dakota, 10th with an inbound migration of 55.9 percent.

One of the few Western states with outbound migration continued to be California, though the outbound percentage (52.4) was the lowest in four years.

States with the biggest percentage of moves leaving the state were all from the East or Midwest except for Louisiana, still feeling the impact of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Louisiana had the seventh-highest outbound migration with 56.4 percent of shipments leaving the state.

The findings announced by Carl Walter, vice president of United Van Lines, did not seek to determine reasons for the migration patterns. But Walters said the study is used by real estate firms, financial institutions and others for business planning and analysis.

In Missouri, 51.8 percent of moves were outbound. In Kansas, 50.5 percent of moves were inbound.

United Van Lines, based in suburban St. Louis, has about 30 percent of the market for moving household goods, the company said.

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