Published by U.S. Census Bureau
Geographical Mobility/Migration refers to the movement of people within the United States from one location to another at various geographic levels. Movers are classified by type of move and characteristics of movers. People who moved from abroad are also included.
Each year, millions of people pack up their belongings and move. A variety of reasons and conditions motivate these moves—life changes, personal and economic opportunities, setbacks and misfortunes. This report provides information about the level of geographical mobility in the United States between 2008 and 2009, along with some sociodemographic characteristics of the people who moved.
The data used in this report come from two different survey collections undertaken by the U.S. Census Bureau. Since the late 1940s, questions on residential mobility have been asked as part of the March supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS), which is now known as the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC). ASEC data provide estimates of geographical mobility in 1-year retrospective periods over the last 6 decades, and these data have been the source of a large, detailed set of tabulations and analyses, some of which are in this report. Many additional data tables are available on the Census Bureau Web site.
