Illinois has lost residents to other states every year for more than a decade. The Census Bureau's 2025 estimates put net domestic out-migration at just over 40,000 people, the third-largest loss in the country behind only California and New York, and the cumulative figure since 2020 is more than 400,000. International arrivals and births now keep the headline population flat, but the people leaving are disproportionately established households with equity, businesses and retirement accounts — exactly the people Illinois' tax base depends on.
- 40,000+
- net residents Illinois lost to other states in 2025 — 3rd-highest exodus in the U.S.
- #2
- Illinois has the second-highest property taxes in America (≈2% of home value vs ≈0.55% in Henderson)
- 0%
- Nevada personal income tax; business taxes may still apply. Illinois takes 4.95%
- 294
- sunny days a year in Las Vegas. Chicago gets 189, plus about 35 inches of snow
The six reasons, ranked by how often clients say them first
1. Property taxes: second-highest in America
Illinois carries the second-highest effective property tax rate in the country, roughly 1.9–2.1% of market value statewide and above 2.5% in Lake County. Cook County bills arrive a year in arrears, reassessments land in triennial shocks, and the levy keeps climbing because local pensions are funded from it. Nevada assesses at 35% of taxable value and caps annual increases on an owner-occupied home at 3%: most Henderson and Las Vegas homeowners pay 0.5–0.6% of market value. On the same $500,000 house the difference is about $600 a month, every month, forever.
2. A tax on everything: paint, bags, streaming, the cloud
Illinois' flat 4.95% income tax is only the headline. Chicago's combined sales tax is 10.5% since August 2026 (11.5% at a downtown restaurant). The state motor fuel tax is 48.3¢ a gallon before Cook County and Chicago add 14¢ more. Since December 2025 every can of paint carries a PaintCare fee of 45¢ to $1.95. Chicago's 2026 budget doubled the checkout-bag tax to 15¢, raised the tax on software and streaming subscriptions to 15%, added a 1.5% liquor tax and expanded the rideshare congestion surcharge — on top of the 10.25% streaming tax and 23.25% parking tax raised the year before. The state repealed its 1% grocery tax in January 2026, and more than 650 municipalities immediately re-imposed it. Nevada has no income tax, no paint fee, no bag tax and no cloud tax; Clark County sales tax is 8.375%.
3. Tolls and roads you pay for twice
Illinois drivers fund roads three times: the second-highest state gas tax in the nation, $151 license plates (plus a city sticker of about $100 in Chicago), and 294 miles of tollway. In August 2026 the Tollway board approved its first passenger-car increase in nearly 15 years: 45¢ more per toll from January 1 2027, taking the most common toll from 75¢ to $1.20 and the average I-PASS rate from 7¢ to about 11¢ a mile, then indexed to inflation every other year from 2029. A suburban commuter can easily spend $1,000–$2,000 a year in tolls. Southern Nevada has no toll roads at all, and the drive from Henderson to the Strip, the airport or Summerlin is 20–30 minutes on free freeways.
4. Five months of winter
Snow, salt, shoveling, black ice, a furnace that runs from November to March and cars that rust from underneath. Chicago sees 189 sunny days a year and about 35 inches of snow; Southern Nevada sees 294 sunny days, golf in January and a pool season that runs April to October. Summer afternoons are hot, but it is a dry heat you spend in air conditioning, not a humidity you shovel. Most clients tell Ron the first winter they skip is the moment the move stops feeling like a gamble.
5. $144 billion in pension debt, and the bill lands on you
Illinois' state and local pension obligations are a long-term fiscal issue. The state and Chicago have enacted multiple tax and fee changes since 2021, but their original revenue estimates from different years cannot be combined into one current annual burden. Illinois also taxes estates above $4 million. Nevada has no state estate or personal income tax. Ron has owned and operated multiple businesses and can help buyers compare the practical costs of a move.
6. More house, no state line drama, four hours by air
Median prices in the Las Vegas valley and the Chicago suburbs are closer than most people expect, but the houses are not: Henderson and Summerlin homes are decades newer, built around parks, trails and A-rated schools, and the property-tax bill is a third of the Illinois one. Chicago is a four-hour nonstop from Harry Reid International with multiple daily flights on Southwest, United, American and Frontier, so family, clients and Bears games stay within reach. You leave Illinois without leaving Illinoisans.
Where Illinoisans actually go
Florida, Texas, Indiana, Wisconsin and Arizona take the largest raw numbers of departing Illinoisans, and the IRS migration data shows the households that leave carry an average of more than $110,000 in adjusted gross income with them. Nevada's share is smaller but growing fast, for three reasons. It is one of only a handful of states with no income tax and no estate tax. Its property-tax bill on the same-priced house is roughly a third of Illinois'. And unlike Florida or Texas, it is a four-hour nonstop from O'Hare and Midway with dry heat, no hurricanes and no humidity.
The businesses left first
At least 13 well-known headquarters have reportedly moved out of Illinois since 2017. Separately, IRS migration data shows net adjusted gross income leaving with residents between 2017 and 2023. These measures do not show that headquarters moves caused residents to leave. Review the company and migration data, or see the tax and fee timeline.
Does leaving actually work out?
For an Illinois household the savings are unusually easy to measure, because so much of the Illinois burden is fixed: property tax on the house you own, the 4.95% on the income you earn, the tolls on the road you drive. A family with a $150,000 income and a $500,000 home gives up roughly $17,000 a year in Illinois income and property tax alone. In Henderson the property tax on that house is about $2,750 and the income tax is zero. Over ten years that is a paid-for college education or a second property, before counting the winter you never shovel again.
What this means if you're the one leaving
The decision is rarely one thing. It is the reassessment notice plus the toll hike plus the paint fee plus the realisation that the house you can afford in Henderson has a pool and no basement to flood. Start with the numbers — the Illinois vs. Nevada tax comparison, the full list of Illinois taxes and fees and the cost-of-living breakdown — then look at where Chicagoans actually settle, and use the moving checklist so the move is clean.
