There's a lot going on in this chart:

• The blue bars measure the # of movers with the scale on the left hand side. For example, in 2018, it appears that 32 million people (scale is in thousands) moved. 
• Black line shows the Mover Rate (percentage of people moving in a given year) with the scale measured on the right side of the graph. For example, in 2018, the mover rate was about 10%. 

Questions:

• What do you think are the reasons that people move? 
• What's the overall trend in the mover rate in the last 30 years? Any guesses on what may be driving this trend?  
• Would you ever move out of your area if you felt the job prospects were better in another part of the country? 

If you are interested in this topic...further reading:

• America, The Stuck (Citylab)
• Why are Americans staying put (NY Times)

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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