New West and Old West in the Twenty-First Century: The Rich Get Richer

Abstract

The rural U.S. West is increasingly valued for its unique natural beauty, tourism potential, and the outdoor recreational activities it provides rather than for its grazing potential, lumber mills, or extraction of valuable minerals. With this transition in mind, we examine demographic changes in the region within the context of selective migration. We build on research conducted in the late 1990s that studied the changing spatial patterns of migration and income migration within the rural Mountain West. We update the current economic and demographic structure of the region and then document how 1990s patterns have persisted through an analysis of population concentration and income migration using U.S. Census and Internal Revenue Service data. Positive net migration and income migration have focused on New West (high amenity) counties, whereas the Old West, comprised of government, mining and manufacturing, farming, and other (diversified) counties, has fallen farther behind in income migration. Consequently, selective migration to areas of natural beauty and recreation potential has increasingly transformed the rural New West into its own peculiar geography, distinct in demographics as well as environment from the Old West, revealing a growing spatial inequality between these two areas, especially in income and housing.