A new analysis from U-Haul shows that Providence is one of the biggest feeder cities to Boston.
U-Haul looked at its transaction data from January to July 2025 to find the leading origins for its one-way U-Haul customers bound for 35 metro areas with populations greater than 2 million.
It found that the Rhode Island capital was the No. 2 non-Massachusetts origin city from which new Boston residents were moving, just behind New York City.
Is Providence's population declining?
U-Haul's analysis found that moving trends are reversing: while people tended to move away from cities during the COVID -19 pandemic, now, the data shows people moving back into large metro areas.
“More recently, big cities and their expanding suburbs are back to greeting a robust inflow of U-Haul equipment,” said a press release.
While the survey found that many new Boston residents are moving from Providence, that doesn't mean the city is shrinking. Instead, Providence followed the trend of growing metro areas: from 2022 to 2023, it was the fastest growing city in Rhode Island, according to U.S. Census estimates, reversing a declining trend in 2021-2022. It grew by 0.6%, climbing from 189,567 residents to 190,792.
But according to Pew, an affiliate of Pew Research Center, Rhode Island is one of the slower growing states in the country, and the population is expected to decline in 2040-2050.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Where do new Boston residents come from? Many are from Rhode Island
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