A new Houston-area city has emerged a top destination for millennial movers, a new migration report has found: Conroe.
This surprising Houston neighbor ranked as the 15th most popular U.S. city for millennials in SmartAsset's annual report, "Where Millennials Are Moving – 2026 Study."
The report calculated the percentage of the total population represented by millennials (people aged 25-44) in more than 250 of the largest U.S. cities. Then it ranked the cities by the rate of millennials who moved there in 2024 (the year with the most recent available data), also as a percentage of the total population. Data was sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau's 1-Year American Community Survey.
According to the data, 9.14 percent of Conroe's total population were millennial transplants that arrived in the city in 2024. That means nearly 10,500 people between the ages of 25 and 44 packed up and moved to Conroe that year.
To zoom out on the city's greater millennial population, there are currently about 39,300 millennials who call Conroe home. These individuals make up around 35 percent of the city's entire population, the study determined.
SmartAsset also broke down how many millennial transplants arrived in Conroe from elsewhere in Montgomery County, a different Texas county, a different state altogether, and another country:
- Moved in from same county: 5,383 people
- Moved in from different county in same state: 3,802 people
- Moved in from a different state: 863 people
- Moved in from abroad: 423 people
Millennials make up about
36 percent of the American workforce, the report noted, so it's likely not a surprise that many of them would choose to live in a city like Conroe, who was among the
most desirable suburbs to move to in America in 2025, and was also dubbed one of the
best cities for renters that same year. Most recently, the suburb landed among the top 20 U.S. suburbs with the highest rate of
new wealthy residents.
"With more flexibility than ever due to remote work and rapidly developing technologies, many Millennial households opt to move locations in pursuit of job opportunities, higher pay, preferable lifestyles, and family considerations, among other reasons," the report's author wrote.
The study proposed that U.S. cities that are successful in attracting newcomers within the 25-44 age group may see some benefits from "stronger and more diverse workforces, disposable income flowing to local businesses, and additional tax revenue." Yet it also warned that an influx of transplants can result in greater competition in a city's housing market and "a change in the business mix for preexisting locals."
The top 10 most popular destinations for millennials on the move in 2026 are:
- No. 1 – Cambridge, Massachusetts
- No. 2 – Seattle, Washington
- No. 3 – Sunnyvale, California
- No. 4 – Orlando, Florida
- No. 5 – Arlington, Virginia
- No. 6 – Austin, Texas
- No. 7 – Bellevue, Washington
- No. 8 – Sandy Springs, Georgia
- No. 9 – Denver, Colorado
- No. 10 – Santa Clara, California
