Economic and Fiscal Implications of Nonmetropolitan Retirement Migration

Abstract

Nonmetropolitan retirement counties experienced extraordinary population growth during the 1970s and continued to grow during the 1980s at a rate exceeding national, metropolitan, and nonmetropolitan averages. Economically, retirement counties outdistanced other nonmetropolitan counties in employment and per capita income growth. In tandem with population and economic growth, retirement counties have lower than average local tax and revenue rates. Expenditures per capita for local public services are also low in retirement counties, compared to nonmetropolitan counties generally. Lower than average tax and revenue rates lower the cost of living, and thus retirement counties may remain competitive with other areas of the country in attracting future in-migrants. In the long run, however, relatively low fiscal efforts and expenditures could hamper local economic development. The findings of the study indicate that retirees have not been an excessive burden on local public service expenditures, as some have feared.