Drop in Americans on Move

Despite the nation’s reputation as a rootless society, only about one in 10 Americans moved in the last year — roughly half the proportion that changed residences as recently as four decades ago, census data show.
Skip to next paragraph The monthly Current Population Survey found that fewer than 12 percent of Americans moved since 2007, a decline of nearly a full percentage point compared with the year before. In the 1950s and ’60s, the number of movers hovered near 20 percent.
The number has been declining steadily, and 12 percent is the lowest rate since the Census Bureau began counting people who move in 1940.
An analysis by the Pew Research Center attributes the decline to a number of factors, including the aging of the population (older people are less likely to change residences) and an increase in two-career couples.
The Pew analysis is drawn from census data and a survey, which found that 63 percent of Americans said they had moved to another community at least once in their lives, while 37 percent said they lived in the community where they were born.
According to the census’s American Community Survey, New York retained first place in the proportion of residents who were born in the state — more than 81 percent — with upstaters generally less mobile.
The top five also included Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio, generally Rust Belt states with older populations.