Internal Migration in Decline

Bibliographic Data

ID23352011
AuthorsThomas J Cooke (0000-0001-5621-1323, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume65
Issue4
Pages664-675
Publication date2013-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Professional Geographer (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-0124 • E-ISSN: 1467-9272
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00330124.2012.724343
OpenAlexW1971115817
LanguageEN
Citations received79
References cited26

Internal migration rates in the United States have been steadily declining for at least twenty-five years: In 1984, 6.4 percent of the population moved between counties but by 2006—well before the most significant economic crisis since the Great Depression—annual intercounty migration rates had already declined to 4.7 percent and by 2010 to 3.5 percent. Despite the implications of the migration decline, it is poorly recognized and understood. The analysis shows that over the last thirty years, three broad trends have combined to pull migration rates dramatically lower: an increase in dual-worker couples, increased household indebtedness, and the widespread rise of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The first two are probably linked, as households have responded to decreasing real income over the last quarter-century through greater female labor force participation and maintaining current levels of consumption by borrowing ever more heavily from the equity in their homes. Thus, although this analysis shows that the decline in migration rates is not directly linked to the Great Recession, the migration decline is surely linked to the broader macroeconomic shifts that gave rise to it. With respect to the role of ICTs, it is not surprising that as ICTs have transformed nearly everything else across society, their use has affected migration rates. It is presumed that ICTs are providing new forms of mobility that are substituting for migration.

Consumption (sociology) · Demographic economics · Development economics · Economics · Equity (law) · Geography · Great Depression · Great recession · ICTS · Information and Communications Technology · Internal migration · Labour economics · Net migration rate · Political science · Population · Population growth · Quarter (Canadian coin) · Recession · Sociology · Demography · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis · Urban Transport and Accessibility · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

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