(NewsNation) — The percentage of Americans who move is at its lowest rate in recent history. And new research suggests the rate will stay low for quite some time.
Migration hovered at around 20% from just after World War II through the 1980s. Since then, it’s been on a steady decline to just 8.4% in 2021. The latest rate, taken from U.S. Census Bureau statistics, is 8.7% in 2022.
William Frey, a senior demographer at the Brookings Institution, tells Axios that several factors have collided to bring down the moving rate:
Frey’s analysis revealed one big anomaly. Local moves, defined as moving within the same county, fell to below 5% in the 2021-2022 survey period. That’s down from nearly 9% in 2010. But long-distance moves are up slightly to about 1.5%, following four years of steady decline.