Mobility in America Part 3 | Migration to Metro and Nonmetro Areas
November 24,
2017 by Jane Chero in General 
Once a country on the move, mobility reached a historical low from 2015 to 2016 with only 11.2 percent of the population moving to a different home or apartment. This compares to a 1948 peak of 20.3 percent. The third and final factoid series on Mobility in America looks at where people are moving. Are more movers simply relocating to a nearby apartment or home? Is there migration into the cities from the suburbs? Are some more people moving to sunshine states? The second factoid in this series focuses on migration to Metro and Nonmetro Areas.
In general, the majority of movers tend to move within the same area or type of area with movers from nonmetro areas somewhat more likely to leave for the big cities. Conversely, Only 3.5 percent of the metro movers left urban life for the country or smaller towns (nonmetro areas) from 2015 to 2016. However, 27.3 percent of movers living in non metro areas left for a metropolitan area. The small percentage of immigrants overwhelmingly chose metro areas, 93.8 percent.
As expected, metro areas have the most movers by far, with 64 percent of movers electing to stay within the same metropolitan area. At 16.7 percent, the next highest group of movers traded one metro area for another metro area between 2015 and 2016, while 9.3 percent of movers continued to reside in a nonmetro location.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2016 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (1) Nonmetro areas included Micropolitan Statistical Areas and rural counties