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Geographical Mobility: March 1980 to March 1981

Migration, or geographical mobility, is an important component of demographic change. It has a major impact on population distribution as people move between cities and suburbs, metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas, States, and regions. It is important to know the characteristics of these movers-age, race, sex, occupation, income, education, and marital status-in order to assess the impact that migration may have on the areas of origin and destination.

The mobility data in this report are estimates from the March 1981 Current Population Survey (CPS). They were derived by comparing the location of each respondent's residence in 1980 with their current residence in 1981. For comparative purposes, the text also includes some mobility data from the 1961, 1971, and 1976 surveys.

RATE OF MOVING

The 1980-81 data indicate that the rate of moving among Americans has continued to decline (table A). About 17 percent of the population changed residences within the United States between 1980 and 1981, compared with about 19 percent during the 1970-71 period and about 21 percent between 1960 and 1961. This decline occurred despite the fact that the population 20 to 29 years old, the age group with the highest mobility rate, rose from about 12 percent of the total population in 1961 to about 18 percent in 1981. The decline in the overall mobility rate would likely be even greater if the percentage of the population in that very mobile age group was as low in 1981 as it was in 1961. Application of 1980-81 moving rates by age to the 1961 age structure produces an overall mobility rate of about 16 percent.

The majority of moves are short-distance moves. Between 1980 and 1981, about 63 percent of all those changing residence moved within the same county, 83 percent moved within the same State, and 91 percent moved within the same region (table B). Thus, about 9 percent of all movers lived in a different region in 1981 than in 1980.

REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

Trends in net interregional migration that began in the late 1960's, including net migration out of the North and into the South and the West, have continued (table C). Between 1980 and 1981, the Northeast and North Central Regions both had net outmigration (242,000 and 406,000, respectively). The South, which includes Texas, had a large gain with a net inmigration of 487,000 persons.

The mobility rates for the four regions of the United States vary from the 17 percent average for the country as a whole. The percentages of persons in each region in 1981 who had moved since 1980 are shown in table D. The Northeast and North Central regions had lower rates of moving while the South and West had higher rates than the national average. This is partially because the Northeast and North Central regions had net outmigration. Therefore, persons who lived in the North in 1980 and moved to the South or the West by 1981 inflated the number of movers living in those two regions at the survey date and deflated the number of movers living in the North.

'U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-20, No. 368, Geographical Mobility: March 1975 to March 1980, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1981.

Table A. Mobility Rates for All Ages and Ages 20 to 29 Years: 1960-61, 1970-71, and 1980-81

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Rates of moving within each region also vary considerably from region to region (table E). Movers who remained in the North were more likely to make shorter distance moves than intraregional movers in the South and the West. Persons residing in the North who moved within the same region were more likely to have moved within the same State than those in the South and West, while movers living in the South and West were more likely to have moved between States. Even for those moving within the same State, persons living in the North were more likely to have moved within the same county rather than between counties.

MIGRATION FOR CITIES AND SUBURBS

Persons moving to metropolitan areas more frequently moved to suburban areas than to the central cities. In fact, 50 percent more of those persons leaving nonmetropolitan areas went to the suburbs (1,276,000) than to central cities (880,000).

Central cities of metropolitan areas continued to experience net outmigration between 1980 and 1981, at approximately the same magnitude as they had in the 1975-76 period (table F). Central cities lost 5,001,000 persons and gained 2,765,000 persons through internal migration between 1980 and 1981 for a net loss of 2,236,000. Of those leaving the central cities, three times as many went to the suburbs (3,844,000) as to nonmetropolitan areas (1,157,000).

The balance of SMSA's (the mostly suburban part of metropolitan areas outside the central cities) continued to experience net inmigration. These areas gained 5,120,000 persons from central cities and nonmetropolitan areas and lost 3,078,000 persons for a net gain of 2,042,000. Most migrants who left the suburbs went to the central cities (1,885,000), but a large number also went to nonmetropolitan areas (1,193,000).

MIGRATION DIFFERENTIALS

Migration rates for the 1980-81 period varied considerably by age (tables 4 and 5). As stated earlier, persons in their 20's move more often than any other age group. In

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1981, about 38 percent of the persons who were 20 to 24 years old and 31 percent of those 25 to 29 years old reported that they lived in a different house 1 year earlier, compared with about 17 percent of the total population. As age increases, the likelihood of moving decreases and the annual rates of moving decline. For age groups above 45, the annual rates of moving are less than 10 percent.

Persons in their 20's have the highest rates of moving for many reasons. These are the ages at which persons leave their parental homes to establish their own households, start new jobs, get married, attend college, and enter or leave the Armed Forces. All of these life-cycle and employment status changes are frequently accompained by residential changes as well.

The high rate of mobility for children at the youngest ages reflects the high rates of mobility of their parents. Older children are more likely to have older parents with lower rates of mobility. Generally, the older the child, the lower the rate of mobility. For example, the mobility rate for children 1 to 4 years old was 26 percent, while that for children 14 to 17 years old was only 12 percent. The rate of 23 percent for 18-to-19 year olds is less a reflection of the low mobility rates of their parents than the fact that some of these people are already beginning to make the kinds of moves responsible for the high mobility rates found for the 20-to-24 age group.

Between 1980 and 1981, Blacks had a higher overall rate of moving than Whites (18 percent and 16 percent, respectively); however, Blacks tended to move shorter distances than Whites (table 2). In the 1980-81 period, about 14 percent of Blacks moved within the same county, compared with only 10 percent of Whites. Whites, however, had higher rates of intercounty and interstate migration than Blacks. During the 1-year period, 6 percent of the Whites moved

between counties with approximately equal rates for those moving within the same State and between States.

Persons with moderate incomes have higher rates of moving than persons at either end of the income distribution (table 32). One reason that persons with moderate incomes are more likely to move than persons with high incomes is because the former are more likely to be renters. Data from the 1978 Annual Housing Survey2 show that renters are over three times as likely to move as owners. Persons with low incomes, such as the elderly or those not in the labor force, may have low rates of moving because they cannot afford to move.

The survey data indicate that mobility status varies by labor force status (table 28). The mobility rates were higher for civilian persons currently unemployed than for those employed (28 percent and 18 percent, respectively). At least some of these people may have been employed before the move but were still looking for work at their new location.

Persons not in the labor force in 1981 had much lower mobility rates than either of those groups (12 percent). Nearly 40 percent of the 817,000 members of the Armed Forces included in the survey (those living off post or with their families on post) changed residence during the 1-year period, continuing the trend of Armed Forces personnel to have the highest mobility rates of any of the labor force status groups. Labor force status refers to the time of the survey and, therefore, represents status at the end rather than the beginning of the mobility interval.

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Mobility status also varies somewhat among occupation groups (table 28). For nonfarm workers, mobility rates vary little among occupations. Farm workers had, by far, the lowest mobility rate of any of the occupations. A limitation of the statistics is that occupation is measured at the end of the migration interval; for some persons occupation changed, but the data do not allow comparison of occupational changes associated with geographical mobility.

Educational attainment also influences the likelihood of geographical mobility (table 25). College graduates are more likely to move than high school graduates who, in turn, move more frequently than persons with only an elementary education. Among persons 25 years old and over, 16 percent of those with 4 or more years of college moved between March 1980 and March 1981, compared with 12 percent of those who had completed only 4 years of high school. Only 9 percent of those with 8 or fewer years of education, many of whom are also elderly, moved during the year.

The presence and ages of own children in a family influence the likelihood of moving (table 14). Among family householders who were 15 to 54 years old at the survey date, those with own children under 18 were less residentially mobile than those with no own children under 18. The families whose children were all under 6 years were more

2U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Housing Reports, Series H-150-78, Part D, Housing Characteristics of Recent Movers for the United States and Regions: 1978, Annual Housing Survey: 1978, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1981.

U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-20, No. 368, Geographical Mobility: March 1975 to March 1980,

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INTERVAL LENGTH

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The mobility data in this report are derived from the answers to questions on residence 1 year before the survey date and the geographical location of the respondent's current residence. A facsimile of the question on previous residence is shown below. These questions were asked for a members of the survey household who were 15 years old and over on the survey date. Previous residence for persons under 15 years old was allocated based on the responses of their parents or other members of the household. (See the section entitled "Allocations of Mobility Status" for a further discussion of the allocation of mobility data for children and other persons for whom no response or only

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In the March 1981 CPS, complete mobility information was not reported for about 6 percent of all persons 15 years old and over, and the mobility questions were not asked for any persons under 15 years of age. In these cases, missing mobility data are allocated by values obtained for other family members (if available) or from other active respondents with similar demographic characteristics. The previous residence assigned to a nonrespondent is that obtained for another person with similar demographic characteristics who did respond and who has been selected systematically in the order in which individual records are processed. Characteristics used in these allocations (when mobility data for other family members are not available) are age, race, years of school completed, metropolitan status, and State of current residence. (State of previous residence is used instead of State of current residence if State but not place or county of previous residence is provided by the respondent.)

RELATED REPORTS

Statistics on the mobility of the population have been collected annually in the Current Population Survey since 1948. Tables similar to those in this report were published for the 1975-80 period in Series P-20, No. 368, Geographical Mobility: March 1975 to March 1980; for the 1975-79 period in Series P-20, No. 353, Geographical Mobility: March 1975 to March 1979; for the 1975-78 period in Series P-20, No.331, Geographica! Mobility: March 1975 to March 1978; for the 1975-77 period in Series P-20, No. 320, Geographical

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