Migration Takes a Hit in the Recession

The Census Bureau just released data from the Current Population Report which every March asks Americans about their migration during the previous year. As reported by the New York Times, the data show that:

About 10.5 million Americans changed counties from 2009 to 2010, or about 3.5 percent of the population, the lowest percentage since 1947, when the government first started tracking the numbers.

It was fewer than the 11 million who moved the previous year, and down by a third from the 15.8 million who moved from 2004 to 2005, when the economy was doing well.

If a local economy tanks, but other places are doing better, then people may migrate to improve their situation. In this deep global recession, however, the options are fewer and farther between. That helps to explain why migration to the United States is also down, not just migration within the US.