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(AP) -- The 36th annual United Van Lines migration study is out, and the northeastern U.S. is once again seeing the most outbound movement.

The St. Louis-based moving company tracks the states its customers move to and from over the course of a year, including Washington, D.C., but excluding Alaska and Hawaii. For 2012, the states with the highest percentages of outbound movement were, in order, New Jersey, Illinois, West Virginia, New York and New Mexico.

The District of Columbia had the highest percentage of people moving in, followed by Oregon, Nevada, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Economist Michael Stoll says the study generally shows a movement of people to Sun Belt states in the South and West.

Missouri trended toward the outbound, ranking 16th-highest in percentage moving out.

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