Those of you to whom this applies-- Do you have any regret or feel like you missed anything?
I couldn't imagine living in one town, city or even state my entire life. I tend to think it mainly owes to a lack of opportunity-- having kids young might force someone to settle in one spot early in life-- but it is certainly a choice for some. Why?
Who Moves? Who Stays Put? Where’s Home?
BY D’VERA COHN AND RICH MORIN
...Among all respondents to the Pew Research Center survey, 57% say they have not lived in the U.S. outside their current state: 37% have never left their hometown and 20% have left their hometown (or native country) but not lived outside their current state.
The Pew survey finds that stayers overwhelmingly say they remain because of family ties and because their hometowns are good places to raise children. Their life circumstances match those explanations. Most stayers say at least half a dozen members of their extended families live within an hour’s drive; for 40%, more than 10 relatives live nearby. A majority of stayers also cite a feeling of belonging as a major reason for staying put.
Movers are far less likely to cite those kinds of ties. Fewer than four-in-ten say a major reason they moved to their current community has to do with family or child-rearing. Most movers have five or fewer extended-family members living within an hour’s drive of them, and 26% have none. The most popular reason that movers choose a new community, selected by a 44% plurality, is job or business opportunities, according to the Pew survey. About the same share of stayers (40%) cite job or business opportunities as a major reason for staying, but far more stayers choose reasons related to family and friends.
Movers are more likely than stayers to say that it is likely they will move in the next five years. But despite those and other differences, equal shares of movers and stayers — about six-in-ten — rate their communities overall as good to excellent.
Most Americans live surprisingly close to their mothers
Most Americans live within 25 miles of their mothers, according to a study co-authored by an economics researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.
The study calls into question a widespread belief that when children grow up, they’re likely to move far away and not be on hand to help out when their mothers get older. Not surprising, findings show a strong connection between education levels and the probability that individuals live close to their mothers.
The study, conducted for the University of Michigan Retirement Research Center, is co-authored by Robert A. Pollak, Ph.D., the Hernreich Distinguished Professor of Economics in Arts & Sciences and the Olin School of Business at Washington University, and Janice Compton, an economics professor at the University of Manitoba. Compton earned her doctoral degree in economics from Washington University in 2005.
This study is based on a nationally representative sample of married and single adults age 25 and older from the National Survey of Family Health and on data from the U.S. Census.
“Adult children with college degrees are much less likely to live with or near their mothers,” said Pollak, who co-authored a working paper titled “Proximity and Coresidence of Adult Children and their Parents: Description and Correlates.”
For example, among couples who both have college degrees, about 50 percent live more than 30 miles from both their mothers and only 18 percent live within 30 miles of both mothers.
Among couples who have no college degree, the situation is reversed: about 19 percent live more than 30 miles from both their mothers and 50 percent live within 30 miles of both their mothers.
“If you go to college, you’re more likely to work away from the place you grew up,” Compton said. “Plus, you’re more likely to marry someone who’s not from your hometown and or even from your state. And since your mothers don’t live in the same area, you are less likely to move to be close to one mother but not the other.”
Unmarried adults tend to live closer to their mothers—about 15 miles compared to about 25 to 30 miles for married adults.
Compared with whites, Hispanics are no more likely to live in close proximity to their mothers, but they are twice as likely to live with their mothers. Blacks are more likely than whites to live near their mothers and also more likely to live with their mothers.
“There are certainly cultural issues that affect coresidence and family proximity,” Pollak said.
Gender has no impact on proximity, but unmarried women are less likely than unmarried men to live with their mothers.
Younger adult children are more likely, and older adult children are less likely, to live with or near mom. Only children live closer to their mothers, on average, but for those children who have siblings, the researchers found no birth order effect. In other words, the youngest in the family were no more likely to live close to mom than were the first-borns.
The researchers also analyzed how proximity patterns were influenced by the needs of older mothers for help or the needs of adult children for help with childcare. Adult children are more likely to live with their mothers when one of them needs help—when mothers are older or in poor health, or when adult children are unemployed or unmarried. But the probability of close proximity depends primarily on the age and education of the adult child, not the mother’s need for care.
“What’s striking about the data is how seldom married couples live with either his mom or her mom,” Pollak said. “But almost 20 percent of single men live with their mothers. And if you exclude those who are living together, the median distance of single men to their mother’s home is 15 miles.
“It would be interesting to know how many of the single men have never left home, which puts a different twist on the question of who’s taking care of whom.”
I couldn't imagine living in one town, city or even state my entire life. I tend to think it mainly owes to a lack of opportunity-- having kids young might force someone to settle in one spot early in life-- but it is certainly a choice for some. Why?
Who Moves? Who Stays Put? Where’s Home?
BY D’VERA COHN AND RICH MORIN
...Among all respondents to the Pew Research Center survey, 57% say they have not lived in the U.S. outside their current state: 37% have never left their hometown and 20% have left their hometown (or native country) but not lived outside their current state.
The Pew survey finds that stayers overwhelmingly say they remain because of family ties and because their hometowns are good places to raise children. Their life circumstances match those explanations. Most stayers say at least half a dozen members of their extended families live within an hour’s drive; for 40%, more than 10 relatives live nearby. A majority of stayers also cite a feeling of belonging as a major reason for staying put.
Movers are far less likely to cite those kinds of ties. Fewer than four-in-ten say a major reason they moved to their current community has to do with family or child-rearing. Most movers have five or fewer extended-family members living within an hour’s drive of them, and 26% have none. The most popular reason that movers choose a new community, selected by a 44% plurality, is job or business opportunities, according to the Pew survey. About the same share of stayers (40%) cite job or business opportunities as a major reason for staying, but far more stayers choose reasons related to family and friends.
Movers are more likely than stayers to say that it is likely they will move in the next five years. But despite those and other differences, equal shares of movers and stayers — about six-in-ten — rate their communities overall as good to excellent.
Most Americans live surprisingly close to their mothers
Most Americans live within 25 miles of their mothers, according to a study co-authored by an economics researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.
The study calls into question a widespread belief that when children grow up, they’re likely to move far away and not be on hand to help out when their mothers get older. Not surprising, findings show a strong connection between education levels and the probability that individuals live close to their mothers.
The study, conducted for the University of Michigan Retirement Research Center, is co-authored by Robert A. Pollak, Ph.D., the Hernreich Distinguished Professor of Economics in Arts & Sciences and the Olin School of Business at Washington University, and Janice Compton, an economics professor at the University of Manitoba. Compton earned her doctoral degree in economics from Washington University in 2005.
This study is based on a nationally representative sample of married and single adults age 25 and older from the National Survey of Family Health and on data from the U.S. Census.
“Adult children with college degrees are much less likely to live with or near their mothers,” said Pollak, who co-authored a working paper titled “Proximity and Coresidence of Adult Children and their Parents: Description and Correlates.”
For example, among couples who both have college degrees, about 50 percent live more than 30 miles from both their mothers and only 18 percent live within 30 miles of both mothers.
Among couples who have no college degree, the situation is reversed: about 19 percent live more than 30 miles from both their mothers and 50 percent live within 30 miles of both their mothers.
“If you go to college, you’re more likely to work away from the place you grew up,” Compton said. “Plus, you’re more likely to marry someone who’s not from your hometown and or even from your state. And since your mothers don’t live in the same area, you are less likely to move to be close to one mother but not the other.”
Unmarried adults tend to live closer to their mothers—about 15 miles compared to about 25 to 30 miles for married adults.
Compared with whites, Hispanics are no more likely to live in close proximity to their mothers, but they are twice as likely to live with their mothers. Blacks are more likely than whites to live near their mothers and also more likely to live with their mothers.
“There are certainly cultural issues that affect coresidence and family proximity,” Pollak said.
Gender has no impact on proximity, but unmarried women are less likely than unmarried men to live with their mothers.
Younger adult children are more likely, and older adult children are less likely, to live with or near mom. Only children live closer to their mothers, on average, but for those children who have siblings, the researchers found no birth order effect. In other words, the youngest in the family were no more likely to live close to mom than were the first-borns.
The researchers also analyzed how proximity patterns were influenced by the needs of older mothers for help or the needs of adult children for help with childcare. Adult children are more likely to live with their mothers when one of them needs help—when mothers are older or in poor health, or when adult children are unemployed or unmarried. But the probability of close proximity depends primarily on the age and education of the adult child, not the mother’s need for care.
“What’s striking about the data is how seldom married couples live with either his mom or her mom,” Pollak said. “But almost 20 percent of single men live with their mothers. And if you exclude those who are living together, the median distance of single men to their mother’s home is 15 miles.
“It would be interesting to know how many of the single men have never left home, which puts a different twist on the question of who’s taking care of whom.”
