EMBARGOED UNTIL: SEPT. 12, 1995 (TUESDAY) Public Information Office CB95-162 301-457-3030 301-457-4067 (TDD) Kristin A. Hansen 301-457-2454 PEOPLE NOT MOVING AS MUCH AS THEY DID IN THE MID-80s, CENSUS BUREAU REPORTS EMBARGOED UNTIL: SEPT. 12, 1995 (TUESDAY) - Nearly 43 million U.S. residents moved between March 1993 and March 1994--26.6 million of them within the same county--but the 16.7 percent of the population 1 year old and over who moved was well below the 20.2 percent who moved in 1984-85, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau said today. Of the total number of movers in 1993-94, 8 million persons moved between counties in the same state, nearly 7 million moved to another state, and 1.2 million moved to the United States from abroad, according to "Geographical Mobility: March 1993 to March 1994" (P20-485). Annual mobility rates hovered around 20 percent during most of the 1950s and 1960s. With the exception of the short-term spurt in moving in 1984-85, the percentage of movers has declined gradually over the last quarter of a century. In the previous period from March 1992 to March 1993, 16.8 percent of the population moved. Fueling the United States' still relatively high mobility rate are the young. More than one-third (35.6 percent) of persons 20 to 24 years old and 30.7 percent of 25- to 29-year-olds changed residences during the 12-month period in 1993-94. Moving rates decline with age. The least footloose of any age group in 1993-94 were persons 75 to 84 years old, of whom only 4.9 percent moved. That rate is not significantly different, however, from the 5.8 percent of persons 85 and over who moved. Regionally, the Northeast had the lowest overall moving rate (11.6 percent), well below the national rate of 16.7 percent. The West and the South had overall mobility rates higher than the national rate--20.2 percent and 18.1 percent, respectively. The Northeast experienced a net loss of 328,000 movers, while the South showed a net gain of 376,000, the only two statistically significant changes in regional migration flows. Other findings in the report: - Whites have lower overall rates of moving (16 percent) than either African Americans (19.6 percent) or persons of Hispanic origin (22.4 percent). - Of the 1.2 million movers from abroad, about two-thirds of them were not U.S. citizens (e.g., immigrants from foreign countries and temporary residents such as foreign college students). - About one-third of persons living in renter-occupied housing units in March 1993 (32.6 percent) had moved in the previous year. In contrast, fewer than one in 10 persons in owner-occupied housing units (8.9 percent) had moved in the same period. As with all surveys, the data in the report are subject to sampling variability and other sources of error. -X- Editor's note: EMBARGOED UNTIL: SEPT. 12, 1995 (TUESDAY) - media representatives may obtain a copy of the report from the bureau's Public Information Office by telephone: 301-457-3030; fax: 301-457-3670; or e-mail: pio@census.gov. Non-media orders should be directed to the bureau's FastFax: 1-900-555-2FAX (there is a nominal fee); Customer Services Branch on