Renters Four Times More Likely to Move

The U.S. Census Bureau has released a series of 34 tables on the 40 million Americans who moved between 2005 and 2006, including characteristics of movers by type of move.

The package of tables, Geographical Mobility: 2006, describes migration in the United States in 2006. Other data include the annual rate of moving, the distance moved and differences in extent and type, for example, from the Northeast to the South or from the suburbs to a principal city.

Published annually at the national and regional levels, these tables reveal trends about migration in the United States. Characteristics of movers include data by race and Hispanic origin, age, marital status, educational attainment, labor force status, occupation and industry group, income and poverty status.

These estimates are from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the 2006 Current Population Survey.

Some of this year’s findings include the following:
In 2006, 39.8 million United States residents moved within the previous one-year period.
The moving rate remained statistically unchanged from 2005 at 14 percent.
Nearly half of the reasons given for moving (18.4 million) were housing related, such as wanting a bigger or smaller house.
The West had the highest moving rate (16 percent), followed by the South (15 percent), the Midwest (13 percent) and the Northeast (10 percent).
Hispanics had the highest moving rate (18 percent), followed by blacks (17 percent), Asians (14 percent) and non-Hispanic whites (12 percent).
In 2006, nearly one-third (30 percent) of all people living in renter-occupied housing units lived elsewhere a year earlier. The moving rate for people living in owner-occupied housing units was 7 percent.
For the population 16 and older, 24 percent of those who were unemployed in 2006 lived in a different place a year earlier. This compares with 14 percent of those who were employed in 2006 and 10 percent for those not in the labor force.
Most movers stayed within the same county (62 percent), while 20 percent moved from a different county within the same state; 14 percent moved from a different state and 3 percent moved from abroad.
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Editors Note: Data in the report come from the Current Population Survey. Statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling error. For further information on the source of the data and accuracy of the estimates, including standard errors and confidence intervals, go to Appendix G of the technical document.

Tom Edwards
Public Information Office
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e-mail: pio@census.gov