Map of Population Movement
to and from Boston

(Map: Gavin MacCarthy)

The  three counties outside of the Boston metropolitan area from which the most people move to Suffolk County and to which they move from Suffolk County are Providence, Manhattan, and Los Angeles.

People with relatively high incomes are moving from Manhattan and Los Angeles to Suffolk County, and people with relatively low incomes are moving from Suffolk County to Manhattan and Los Angeles.

With Providence, it's the opposite: people with relatively high incomes are moving there from Suffolk County, and people with relatively low incomes are moving from there to Suffolk County.

Economists look at the relative incomes of people moving between counties to see which ones are benefiting from migration: the higher the income of the people moving to a place, the more likely these people are to be skilled, and the better off the county that is receiving them is.