Retirement Migration and the Use of Services in Nonmetropolitan Counties1

Abstract

A conceptual framework of need, enabling, and predisposing determinants of services utilization is employed in an analysis of the use of public services among recent inmigrants (N = 306) and longer‐term residents (N = 323) age 60 and older in retirement‐destination counties of the Middle‐Atlantic region of the United States. Logistic regression is used to examine whether migration status affects use of an array of public services or whether migration transmits the effects of other selectivity factors such as age, gender, income, and health status as indicators of need, enabling, and predisposing characteristics. Being an inmigrant predisposes use of recreation‐oriented public services regardless of selectivity, but other characteristics of older individuals rather than migration per se predict use of other public services.