Millions more Americans move to new states
Americans are on the go again, moving across state lines at the highest rate since the early 1990s, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Census data.
Demographers say the jump is fueled largely by two highly mobile segments of the population:
STATE-BY-STATE: Americans on the move
• Immigrants who have left traditional gateway states and fanned out across the USA in search of jobs and lower living costs.
• A larger generation of 20-somethings, an age group more likely than others to move as they attend college, launch their careers or leave their childhood homes. The number of people in their 20s dropped from 40.5 million in 1990 to 38.3 million in 2000 but rebounded to almost 42 million in 2006.
“When immigrants come to the U.S., they go one place, and they move to another place,” says William Frey, a demographer at the Brooking’s Institution. “They’re more likely to be renters. They’re more likely to follow jobs. … They’re used to moving.”
The percentage of Americans who say they moved from another state the previous year has risen every year this decade. At 2.2% in 2003, it reached 2.5% in 2005 and 2.7% in 2006, the first year that the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey counted people in dormitories, prisons and other group settings.
The increase in movers from 2003 to 2006 amounts to an extra 1.5 million people moving to another state every year or a total of 8 million in 2006. Mobility is a good barometer of changing demographics and economic conditions nationwide.
Learn more: usatoday.com