While southern and western cities are welcoming sweeping numbers of single, college-educated students, the Northeast and Midwest aren't destination spots for young adults, according to a report by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The bureau released statistics Monday on its first account of the migration of single people ages 25 to 39 with college diplomas. Detroit was among three of the 20 most-populated cities that saw a reduction in that age group, along with Cleveland and Philadelphia. Experts say factors contributing to the migration include weather, nightlife and careers.
"Midwest population growth is obviously very small compared to other parts of the U.S.," MSU research analyst and demographer Bettie Landauer-Menchik said. "But there's greater job creation in a number of the south and west states.
"People are also moving for quality-of-life features - nightlife, concerts, music and where they can afford to live. More people are retiring in southern states, warmer states, and many immigrants flock to both areas in terms of job creation."
Metropolitan areas were ranked by how many single, college-educated people age 25 to 39 moved to the area from another metropolitan area between 1995 and 2000, compared to the number of people in that group who lived there in 1995.
Within the five-year span, Naples, Fla., Las Vegas; Charlotte, N.C., Atlanta and Portland, Ore., were the cities with the largest growth. Major increases also were seen in Denver, Phoenix and Dallas-Fort Worth, along with the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, Calif., areas.
Mark Salling, a demographer with the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University, said the migration is a serious problem for the Midwest if the loss is of the younger, skilled and most educated people of the population.
"The relative income and the relative learning power they bring into the industry is being lost to other regions," Salling said. "But that's where the jobs are."
Salling also highlighted other reasons for people flocking south and west.
"There's always the weather," he said. "Some people just like change and they move to places they'll like better in terms of lifestyle - not just for economic reasons."
But the flow of young adults to the Sun Belt and to the West is not as dramatic as some might think, state demographer Ken Darga said, citing Michigan's ranking of 49th in the country for in-migration.
"It's not like the early 1980s when there was a huge flow of out-migration, which affected Michigan much more severely than the rest of the nation," Darga said. "The biggest factor in Michigan is losing young adults to the military service. When people join the military, they're counted in the census bureau by the state they're serving in."
Landauer-Menchik said that although the number of people migrating out of the state isn't significant, Michigan has one of the smallest population growths in the Midwest. Consequently, she said, people might not be anxious to leave, but they're not anxious to migrate to Michigan, either.
"Plus, the climate isn't conducive," she said.
Some experts say this migrating group is good for the economy no matter where they live, because with a college degree, young, single people are receiving better jobs and putting money into the economy.
"Young, college-educated people, particularly ones that aren't married, tend to spend more money easily than older people," Landauer-Menchik said. "They don't have huge responsibilities."
Darga said this phenomenon will be good for larger cities.
"In 1990, it was the opposite," he said. "The big age group was people who were reaching an age to where they were ready to move out of big cities and into the suburbs.
"Now there is a tendency for young adults to move to central cities."
Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for Gov. Jennifer Granholm, said the Granholm administration hopes to modify the out-migration of Michigan with the "Cool Cities" initiative.
"We know people in the 25 to 34 age bracket tend to be a driving force in our economic engine," Boyd said. "We want to do what we can to encourage them to stay in Michigan.
"Our Cool Cities initiative is rather a fun name for a very serious issue, because it's part of our economic development plan to make Michigan a magnet state for jobs and economic development."
Janet Harp can be reached at harpjane@msu.edu.
