Aged metropolitan-nonmetropolitan migration streams over three census decades

One type of population redistribution is discussed in this paper. It is the migration of older people between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan locations as it has occurred over three decades. Both net migration and stream migration studies documented the metropolitan-to-nonmetropolitan turnaround between 1960 and 1970, but no three-decade trends have been established and thus the trend remains in doubt. The data used in this analysis came from the census microdata files, using the 1-in-100 samples in 1960 and 1970 and the 1-in-40 sample in 1980. Only the records of persons age 60 and over were examined. This analysis documents the continuation of the turnaround in 1980 among older migrants and pictures them as forerunners of larger migration trends. It also discusses the dynamics of the trend and some of the processes that may have brought it about and maintain it.