In collaboration with Harvard University, we constructed an interactive Young Adult Migration data tool, which visualizes migration between commuting zones (CZs) for young adults for all 741 CZs in the United States. The data tool provides not only aggregate migration patterns but also migration flows broken down into four race/ethnicity categories and five quintiles of parental income.
The data tool draws upon anonymized decennial census, survey, and tax data for people born between 1984 and 1992 to measure migration between locations in childhood and young adulthood. Childhood locations are measured at age 16 and locations in young adulthood are measured at age 26.
We have also conducted research that sheds light on these new statistics and examines how migration patterns change in response to labor market opportunities. Our research paper draws upon these patterns to explore how the benefits of local labor market growth are geographically distributed across locations of childhood residence. Data tables are available using the link below and are also available for download at migrationpatterns.org .
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