Census Bureau Reports Mover Rate Reaches Record Low
The U.S. Census Bureau reported today the percentage of people who changed residences between 2010 and 2011 was 11.6 percent, the lowest recorded rate since the Current Population Survey began collecting statistics on the movement of people in the United States in 1948. The rate, which was 20.2 percent in 1985, declined to a then-record low of 11.9 percent in 2008 before rising to 12.5 percent in 2009. The 2010 rate was not statistically different than the 2009 rate.
“Taken together,
these products paint a vivid picture of a nation on the move and tell a more
complete story than any one of them can separately,” said Alison Fields, chief
of the Census Bureau's Journey-to-Work and Migration Statistics Branch. “The
record low mover rate was driven by a drop in the likelihood of people moving
from one location to another within the same county. The last time this rate was
so low, the overall mover rate also reached a record
low.”