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In SE Michigan, it's typically Ohio, and Illinois, yet surprisingly not a whole lot of Indiana. We also have a lot of Ontario, unsurprisingly.
It's kind of weird, but I'm in the Lansing area of MI, and we see quite a few Indiana plates - not quite as many as Ohio and probably slightly fewer than Illinois, but a fair number nonetheless. We don't get as many Ontario plates. I guess being a little further west makes a difference. I'd probably put Wisconsin in 4th place.
Otherwise, we'll see the occasional not ridiculously far away states with moderate to large populations (PA, NY, NJ, MN, KY, TN, maybe an occasional one from IA, WV, MO, MD, or GA.) Florida is surprisingly common due to snowbirds. You'll see CA and TX plates just because there are so many people from there, but I think most of those are university students.
I live 250 miles from the nearest point in another state (Vinton, Louisiana), and we don't get any snowbirds here, and the main highway passes a few miles out of town, so I sometimes go a day or two without seeing any out of state plates at all, except a couple that I see every day in my apartment parking lot.
There are a lot of oil field workers finding jobs here, so I see Oklahoma and Louisiana once in a while, but maybe Tamaulipas and Coahuila just as often.
I saw a California last week, and it struck me that it had probably been about a year or two since I'd seen one of those. I don't remember ever seeing a New York plate here, but we get a few Floridas and Illinois and Arizonas.. I saw a Yukon a couple of years ago.
This is not a place that a lot of travelers go to or pass through.
I would guess the way NYC is filled with jersey and ct plates would be the same with Chicago only except ct and nj it would be Wisconsin and Indiana.
Absolutely true. I live on the North side of Chicago, and when would guess that maybe 1/3 of the cars parked on my street have out - of - state plates. Most are from Wisconsin and Indiana but also a ton from Ohio and Michigan.
Since I've lived in both Northern and Southern California, here you go for California generally speaking:
1) Nevada (everywhere, very common)
2) Arizona (more common in Southern than Northern)
3) Washington (more common in Northern than Southern)
4) Oregon (more common in Northern than Southern)
5) Texas (more common in Southern than Northern)
However, you can see a every single state (even Hawaii and Alaska), plus a lot of Canadian plates (mostly British Columbia) and Mexico plates (nearly all from Baja California), but the top 5 are the ones that can be seen the most. You'll notice a lot of Arizona plates more in the Summer, a lot more Washington/Oregon during the Winter, making a lot of this seasonally based.
Oddly enough, this summer I've noticed a lot of NY/NJ plates for some reason. Seemed to be the most common after the first three this time around.
I think every Western state will have California somewhere on the top of their list. God knows I contributed to it this past week (went to OR/WA).
I'm at the very northwest tip of the FL panhandle, there's definitely LOTS of Atlanta people that come through here (DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb). Louisiana plates are fairly common too.
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