Migration and redistribution of the elderly: a challenge to community services.

Abstract

This article analyzes regional migration and redistribution patterns of the elderly in the United States for the 1960s and 1970s, assesses motives for elderly migration, and examines the implications of elderly migration for community services. The elderly population has increased in size 54.2% from 1960 to 1980 and will increase even more by natural increase as the baby boom ages. Although the elderly are less prone to migrate than younger age groups, their two major migration trends are a movement form the Northeast and Midwest to Sunbelt states and turnaround urban-rural migration. A redistribution index shows elderly redistribution as 3.41% for the U.S., with elderly populations growing consistently in the South and West since 1960 and in the East South Central since 1970. Younger elderly tend to move at retirement to Sunbelt states. They are similar to nonmigrant younger elderly in their communities but have greater income, education, and housing ownership, which provides a short-term advantage for communities. Older elderly are more likely to move for assistance from family or to return to a former home. The elderly have a proportionately much higher use of health services (including hospital stays and doctors' visits), nursing homes, and day care centers. Numbers of younger and older elderly per nursing home bed and adult day care center space is shown by region. The North Central has the best services in proportion to population, and the South is strongly deficient in nursing home beds. Despite recent increases in the elderly population in the South and West, they still have less than their share of elderly. Although the migration of younger elderly to the South and West has been beneficial to the communities so far, as younger elderly age, they may need far more intensive community services than now exist.