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Nearly six in 10 US young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up

census.gov

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Re: Nearly six in 10 US young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up

#61

Post by jcims »

daveslash wrote: post #23
irrational wrote: post #9

That is mind boggling to me. I don't know anyone that lives in the same state they grew up in. I live about 3,000 miles away from where I grew up. I have 7 siblings and none of us live in our home state (and none of us live in the same state as another one - we live in NY, CA, MI, TX, OR, OH, UT, CO - we grew up in FL). Though, I remember that one of my brothers once lived in Pennsylvania and he met 2 women who had n…

I'm similar -- 3k miles, but still within the US. My siblings/cousins/family that I grew up less than 10 miles from are now spread between NY, CA, PA, TX, RI, NH, NC, ME, MI. I was travelling through PA once as well and was at a local dive bar chatting up some folks - and they'd never even left their county either - not even for casual travel.

I’m from northwestern PA and most of my family on my dads side (9 kids, Irish Catholic) is like that. A divorce separated my brother and I from the pack and we live a few hundred miles away.

My moms side (7 kids, German Methodist) is scattered about, CA,OH,NC,NY,CO,GA and one uncle that stayed near my grandma in PA.

Hands down, far and away I’d take the first situation over the second. The family bonds and stories are incredible. They get together all the time, work together, some go to church together. It’s an incredibly tight knit family and at last look three of the women that divorced out of the family still come to gatherings and still carry that family name for decades.

Re: Nearly six in 10 US young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up

#62

Post by bombcar »

daveslash wrote: post #23
irrational wrote: post #9

That is mind boggling to me. I don't know anyone that lives in the same state they grew up in. I live about 3,000 miles away from where I grew up. I have 7 siblings and none of us live in our home state (and none of us live in the same state as another one - we live in NY, CA, MI, TX, OR, OH, UT, CO - we grew up in FL). Though, I remember that one of my brothers once lived in Pennsylvania and he met 2 women who had n…

I'm similar -- 3k miles, but still within the US. My siblings/cousins/family that I grew up less than 10 miles from are now spread between NY, CA, PA, TX, RI, NH, NC, ME, MI. I was travelling through PA once as well and was at a local dive bar chatting up some folks - and they'd never even left their county either - not even for casual travel.

A lot of this depends on where in the country you are.

You can't hardly move at all in Texas without ending up in another county, but you can go 1000+ miles and still be in the same state.

Whereas there are counties in California that are larger than the nine smallest states.

There are many Californians that have been to another country (Mexico) but have never been to another state; they're far away.

Re: Nearly six in 10 US young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up

#63

Post by Fauntleroy »

fullshark wrote: post #37

A lot of upperwardly mobile, ambitious people don't realize this, or they generally understand it only in terms of chastising their high school peers who stayed home. If you build a society based on the assumption everyone will simply move and re-skill to the regions with economic opportunity, you get a lot of regions of bitter people who stayed behind somewhere and watched their local economy get destroyed by trade…

I'm one of the "upwardly mobile" folks who moved out, and I'm a bit shocked at all the comments here treating the headline like it's a bad thing. Having a local and consistent community is an essential part of a "good" city. I know that many of the places we moved away from were... lacking, but simply abandoning everything isn't going to help at all either.

Re: Nearly six in 10 US young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up

#64

Post by kitsunesoba »

I would say that I owe my career to not staying in my home town or even my home state. The state has plenty of charms but opportunity is generally speaking not among them. Those of my graduating high school class who I've followed since also moved out of state. Looking at the data from this tool it seems we were outliers, though.

With remote work being more common now I could probably move back, but that would carry some amount of risk as long as I'm working for another company rather than running a business of my own. Where I live now has a decent balance between locally available jobs and cost of living which is a bit scary to give up.

Re: Nearly six in 10 US young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up

#65

Post by lotsofpulp »

wronglebowski wrote: post #33
daveslash wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm similar -- 3k miles, but still within the US. My siblings/cousins/family that I grew up less than 10 miles from are now spread between NY, CA, PA, TX, RI, NH, NC, ME, MI. I was travelling through PA once as well and was at a local dive bar chatting up some folks - and they'd never even left their county either - not even for casual travel.

Maybe it's just the area. I'm in the Philly suburbs and while I love it here I cannot express how little people travel. Even going downtown is a "big deal" if you've grown up to believe either, 1. Cities are awful dangerous places with no value 2. Strip malls and chain restaurants are the pinnacle of civilization When I moved from Bucks County to Chester County I was "moving away" and many people just wrote me off. D…

I notice I do not hang out with people that live further than 30min (reliably). I might be willing to make the trek if I was single, but with kids and spouse, it becomes too time consuming for my taste.

Re: Nearly six in 10 US young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up

#66

Post by bluGill »

nerdjon wrote: post #53

This just seems insane to me. I purposefully graduated early from highschool (1 semester less and it only worked because of where my birthday was) to move 853 miles from where I grew up to where I currently live. My partner did a similar move (before we met). When I talk to most of my friends it is a similar story. I just can't imagine not wanting to explore a new area and have distance from your parents. I love my p…

I've live many hours away from my parents, and I no consider it insane to do so. When I lived with my parents I could make a few phone calls and have a dozen people on my roof - now if there is a problem I have to pay a crew even though I know how to do the work (since there are things that cannot be done alone) When my wife and I want a date - too bad: there is no babysitter nearby that will work on Friday night that we trust, so we don't have that option. There are many other similar things about being close to family that I miss.

I enjoy exploring the world. However eventually I want to come back home.

Re: Nearly six in 10 US young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up

#67

Post by bombcar »

jcims wrote: post #61
daveslash wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm similar -- 3k miles, but still within the US. My siblings/cousins/family that I grew up less than 10 miles from are now spread between NY, CA, PA, TX, RI, NH, NC, ME, MI. I was travelling through PA once as well and was at a local dive bar chatting up some folks - and they'd never even left their county either - not even for casual travel.

I’m from northwestern PA and most of my family on my dads side (9 kids, Irish Catholic) is like that. A divorce separated my brother and I from the pack and we live a few hundred miles away. My moms side (7 kids, German Methodist) is scattered about, CA,OH,NC,NY,CO,GA and one uncle that stayed near my grandma in PA. Hands down, far and away I’d take the first situation over the second. The family bonds and stories ar…

Those large families are impressive; I'm tangentially related by marriage to one and know of a few others in the area, and you quickly realize how something like the Mafia could easily start.

You let it be known you need some help with X and suddenly a cousin appears who specializes in X.

Re: Nearly six in 10 US young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up

#68

Post by theonemind »

It's really too bad that people have to move around for economic and other opportunity. It kind of speaks to the damaged modern psyche with illnesses like schizophrenia virtually absent in the ancient world that anyone would regard not dispersing from their home area as a bad thing. Like, we all just aspire to the condition of the multi-national economic elite, paying allegiance to no country or place, making an abode of bouncing around a few world cities.

Like, maybe we just shouldn't have crappy places that people need to flee, by putting roots in the community and making it a place to be.

Re: Nearly six in 10 US young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up

#69

Post by nemo44x »

tricksforfree wrote: post #5
mikrl wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, moving is related to aspiration. If I stayed where I grew up I’d honestly likely be an opioid statistic and definitely not doing anything worthwhile with my life. I still keep in touch with a few people from youth who didn’t ruin their lives, and I’m the standout success story despite being the socially awkward and poor one. Moving thousands of miles has changed my life in ways I’d never dream of, s…

Imagine if you and similar, "driven" folk stayed and made where you're from better. Imagine if you started small businesses and hired/trained the locals. Maybe everyone left behind wouldn't have to work at a big box store or just die to reduce the societal burden. Edit: Not blaming, just food for thought.

I'm not sure you realize how hopeless large swaths of the country are. There's simply no coming back in many cases. They just need to slowly die out over a few generations and be given back to nature.

Re: Nearly six in 10 US young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up

#70

Post by tsol »

babelfish wrote: post #42
user3939382 wrote: post #35

All IMHO of course: we'd be better off if it was 9 of 10. The family is the most important institution we have, it is the backbone driving the most valuable members of our society. The stronger and more cohesive it is the better. There's a countervailing factor which is that more earnings and economic output arise from jobs in urban areas, which historically can only happen if some members relocate. Hopefully the tre…

[Citation required] for almost every sentence in your post - most importantly "it is the backbone driving the most valuable members of our society". What a ridiculous assertion.

It's not that crazy. Even economically, the people that are gonna support us when we are old and senile are currently being reared as part of families
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