Nearly 500,000 people have traded in a different state’s license and registered as a Texas driver since the pandemic began — suggesting that hundreds of thousands of people have moved to Texas since March 2020.
Specifically, 468,426 people from the other 49 states and the District of Columbia have registered a driver’s license in one of the 254 Texas counties, as of January 2022. About 20% of these people are from California.
More than 92,560 former Californians forfeited their driver’s licenses in Texas during the pandemic. That’s nearly three times the number of Florida drivers, the second largest group who surrendered their licenses.
The largest percentage of people (14.9%) who surrendered their licenses in Harris County are from California. Similar to state trends, the next highest group of people were former Floridians. They made up about 9.5% of new Harris County residents during the pandemic.
Throughout all of Texas, the largest percentage of new residents surrendered their licenses in Harris County.
Although Travis County had only 41,375 people trade in their old driver’s licenses, 20,000 fewer people than in Harris County, the highest percentage of Californians who traded in their licenses (around 12.5%) did so Travis County.
Comal County, located just north of San Antonio, had the highest ratio of licenses surrendered in the county to the county population.
The number of surrendered licenses peaked in October 2021, when 29,555 people officially became Texas residents. Though they surrendered their licenses in October, they did not necessarily move to Texas in October or within 90 days of the date they traded in their licenses.
Only 13 individuals surrendered their licenses in Harris County during April and May 2020, which drops the monthly average during Covid to 2,616 people every month.
But in 2021 alone, an average of 3,371 people forfeited their previous state’s licenses in Harris County every month.
About the data
The Texas Department of Public Safety states that new Texas drivers register their vehicle within their first 30 days in the state and get a new driver’s license within the first 90 days.
Though people who do not meet this deadline may go scot-free, obtaining a Texas driver’s license (rather than keeping their old one) can help the new resident vote in the state. Not all new residents may complete this task, but those who do must prove their residency in the state and are likely new residents.
The data could also include people whose previous state’s driver’s licenses have expired, and though they may have lived in Texas for years, they must now have a license in the state they reside.
The United States Postal Service also provides data on moving based on people who arrange to forward their mail to a specific location. However, not all people who move complete this task and their forwarding information may not address every member of their household. Plus, in a state where about 79% of workers drive to work by themselves and 10% carpool, new residents likely need to drive and choose to certify residency — and ability to vote — by securing a license.
The data does not account for new residents who do not drive and thus have no need for a license nor does it account for people who have opted to keep their licenses from a previous state.