The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a report last month entitled “Baby Boomer Migration and Its Impact On Rural America” that analyzed age-specific, net migration data from the 1990s that uses that data to identify the types of nonmetropolitan counties that are likely to experience the greatest surge in baby boom migration during 2000-2020 and projects that likely impact the size and distribution of retirement-age populations in destination counties.
The report finds a significant increases in the propensity to migrate to non-metro counties as people reach their fifties and sixties and projects a shift in migration among boomers toward more isolated settings, especially those with high natural and urban amenities and lower housing costs. If baby boomers follow past migration patterns, the non-metro population age 55-75 will increase by 30 percent between now and 2020.
