Young Adult Migration

To begin, we can select a commuting zone like Indianapolis and see where children who grew up there moved as young adults.

Hovering over Indianapolis, we see that 73% of people who grew up there remained there as young adults. This reflects the broader pattern that most young adults do not move far from their childhood home.

But, many young adults do leave home and we can use the tool to see where they go. For children growing up in Indianapolis, Chicago is the most popular destination: 1.9% of children move there.

We can also see that nearby destinations are very popular. For example, children growing up in Indianapolis are more likely to migrate to nearby Terre Haute than New York City.

By selecting a particular race/ethnicity, we can explore heterogeneity in moving patterns. For example, we see that 0.69% of White young adults move to Denver.

By contrast, just 0.08% of Black young adults move to Denver.

We can also select parental income categories to explore how this impacts migration patterns. Here, we see that, among White children whose parents were in the top quintile of the income distribution, 1.2% moved to Denver as young adults.

By contrast, just 0.19% of White children from low-income families moved to Denver as young adults.

That concludes our brief tutorial. You can use the toggles and the map to further explore the migration patterns of young adults in the US.

By selecting “to”, we can also use the data tool to look at a CZ and explore where its current young adult residents grew up. Highlighting Denver, we can see that only half (52%) of young adults living in Denver grew up there.

The most common childhood origin for young adults living in Denver is Fort Collins, just to the north. 2.1% of young adults in Denver came from Fort Collins.

By selecting “from” again, we can see that 71% of young adults who grew up in Denver stay there as young adults. This tells us that Denver's young adult population is growing. More than 7 in 10 people growing up in Denver remain there as young adults, but those residents make up just 51% of Denver’s young adult population.

To see more patterns like these, adjust the toggles and explore the map.

Previous research has documented a recent net-inflow of Black individuals into the American South. This pattern has been coined the “New Great Migration” (Frey, 2005). Using this new data on migration patterns that links young adults to their parents and childhood locations, we can explore these patterns in greater depth, learning that children from high income families are more likely to be making these moves South.

To begin, consider Black young adults, who grew up in St. Louis. On average, 81% stay in St. Louis, reflecting the broad patterns we see that most young adults stay close to home.

But for those who leave, we can use the map to see where on average they tend to go. Here, we see that Atlanta is one of the most popular destinations, attracting 1.1% of Black young adults from St. Louis.

In contrast, 0.24% of White young adults from St. Louis moved to Atlanta.

Next, we can see this pattern of moves to the south is driven by Black young adults from affluent families. e.g. 1.9% of Black young adults from St. Louis with high-income parents moved to Atlanta.

In contrast, Black young adults from low-income families were less than half as likely (0.88%) to move to Atlanta.

Finally, we can change the map to explore where young adults in a CZ came from. This shows that 1.2% of all Black young adults in Atlanta came from Detroit, MI…

And another 1.2% came from Chicago.

In fact, only 63% of Black young adults in Atlanta grew up in Atlanta.

Use the map to explore many more of the young adult migration patterns in the US.