Spatial Context of Residential Moves by Elderly Persons

Abstract

This is a descriptive analysis of the spatial context of residential moves by the over age forty-five population in the United States. It utilizes residential mobility and state of birth statistics calculated from a 15 per cent sample of the United States population drawn for the U. S. Census. It specifically focuses on the likelihood that the age sixty-five and over white and black mover will relocate within his same county or state of residence. The paper reveals that the preponderance of residential moves by the elderly (whether black or white) are within the same county. Only a relatively small percentage make interstate moves. The majority of elderly live in the state of their birth. However, there is no evidence that as a consequence of aging moves become more spatially restricted until after age seventy-five. It is argued that greater emphasis be placed on not why elderly persons move, but why when they do, their residential relocations occur within varying spatial contexts.