Quite a few Americans moved about in 2012, but what were the reasons behind their move?

Last year, a hefty number of Americans moved to new residences – 35.5 million Americans, in fact, a 4 percent increase from 2011 that represented 11.6 percent of the total U.S. population.

Such were the findings of the Current Population Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, which uncovered a number of interesting trends behind Americans’ moving habits, such as: 66.5 percent of Americans moved within the same county; 19.2 percent moved to different counties within the same state; and 14.3 percent moved to different states, just a 0.2 percentage point increase from 2011.

But what were the reasons behind those moves? Why did consumers decide to move to new residences? To find out, we took a deeper look at the Current Population Survey, and put together the following infographic: