Demographer Bill Frey at the Brookings Institution has just released a report showing that interstate migration in the United States dropped to the lowest level since the Census Bureau first start collecting annual migration data in the Current Population Survey back in 1948. This is consistent, of course, with the fact that the current recession is the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Migration is a signpost that there are opportunities out there somewhere, whereas bad times cause us to hunker down and stay put.
The New York Times picked up on this story today, but focused only on the cities that are attracting the most new residents that are young college graduates. In 2005-7, Charlotte had led with a rate of 2.77 new such migrants per 100 residents with college degrees, and five other cities were above a rate of 2 per 100. In the most recent period, 2007-9, only Austin had a rate above 2.
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