A new study looks at Americans' mobility: how many adults live in the same state where they were born, how many have moved to other states, where, why, and how these dynamics shape the U.S. economy.
University of Toronto’s School of Cities demographer Karen King analyzed Census data to track how many adults aged 25 years and up are still living in the same state, accounting for education levels. CityLab's research shows that 58.5 percent of Americans currently live in the same state where they were born, slightly more men (58.8 percent) than women (58.2 percent). Geographically, a "stuck belt" spans Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin in the Rust Belt and Midwest, and Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi in the South. Louisiana, Michigan, and Ohio had the highest "stuck" shares, between 71 and nearly 75 percent.
More than a decade ago, in my book Who’s Your City?, I argued that the knowledge economy is bringing about an epochal shift in our class structure. The old class distinction between the corporate class and workers was giving way to a new geographically-based class division. I identified three new classes: “the mobile” who have the means, education, and capability to move to spaces of opportunity; “the stuck” who lack the resources to relocate; and “the rooted” who have the resources to move, but prefer to stay where they are.
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