Where Millennials Are Moving Now

It’s not just the media that’s preoccupied with where millennials are choosing to live. Mayors, economic developers and urban leaders across the country have developed strategies to attract the so-called “young and the restless” to their cities. The urban planner Markus Moos goes as far as to suggest our cities are not only experiencing gentrification, but youthification.

A newly released study takes a close look at the recent migration patterns of 18- to 34-year-olds in the U.S. The study, by researchers Megan J. Benetsky, Charlynn A. Burd and Melanie A. Rapino and released by the U.S. Census Bureau, traces the mobility of these young Americans between 2007 and 2012, breaking the period into two time blocks: the Great Recession, spanning 2007 to 2009, and the subsequent recovery, from 2010 to 2012. It uses data from the American Community Survey’s three-year estimates to examine rates of mobility among young people of both genders and different races, income levels and levels of educational attainment. It also looks at where those young people are actually moving. The study separates out this overall group of young adults into three age brackets: 18- to 24-year-olds, who are more likely to be moving for college; 25- to 29-year-olds, who are more likely to move to establish or move up in their careers; and 30- to 34-year-olds, who are more likely to move for bigger housing required as they start their families.