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Study Finds Chicago Top City People Moved Away From This Summer

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The nation's largest moving company said it has moved more people out of the Chicago area over the past four months than any other major city.

United Van Lines said the company examined data from peak moving season – May through August – and found Chicago at the top of cities that people left.

"Chicago was the number one place to move away from in our study in 2017. When we look back at our data from our 2016, it was also the top outbound city, and we found it's closely followed by New York and Boston in both years," United Van Lines spokeswoman Melissa Sullivan said.

Sullivan said the study didn't gather data on why people choose to leave a particular city.

"I can tell you that we're the mover for about 400 of the Fortune 500 companies, so a lot of our customers are moving for jobs, and we also have a significant number of our customers who are moving for retirement," she said.

The most popular destination cities for the company's customers were Seattle, Dallas, Portland, and Denver.

"We find that people are navigating to the Pacific Northwest, and other places in the Southwest; and leaving places in the Midwest and the Northeast," Sullivan said. "I think it's safe to say that a lot of these moves are motivated by job opportunities, or in the case of leaving the Northeast or the North in general – colder climates – people are looking to retire in warmer places."

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