Which state has the most moving companies per person? Not the one you'd guess. Per 100,000 residents, North Dakota leads at 10.7, with Wyoming (10.1), Maryland (9.9), New Jersey (9.3) and Georgia (8.9) behind. At the bottom: Hawaii, at 1.7 per 100,000 — an ocean makes for a very different moving market.
Two forces shape the table. Small-population states with long distances (the Dakotas, Wyoming) support a surprising density of small interstate carriers. And the East Coast corridor states — Maryland, New Jersey — are dense with movers because they're dense with moves: short interstate hops are everyday life when three states fit in a commute.
If you're moving out of a high-density state, competition works for you: three or four genuine quotes are easy to gather, and prices show it. In thin markets — Hawaii above all, where the carrier set is constrained by the Jones Act — comparing what few options exist matters even more.
Method: carriers by physical-address state (FMCSA census, same filter) per 100,000 residents (Census ACS state population), states over 500,000 population. Registration state is where the business sits, not where it operates. Retrieved 14 August 2026.