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I used to live in Idaho, and its interesting to me to be able to track back trends that we anecdotally could see happening, but had no hard numbers on. For exa
by araes 12y ago
I used to live in Idaho, and its interesting to me to be able to track back trends that we anecdotally could see happening, but had no hard numbers on. For example, one of the major trends has been the population volatility, and particularly California immigration due to the lack of population and low land cost.
In 1950, 1% of Idahoans were from California. In 1960, 2%. In 1970, 4%. In 1980, 7%. In 1990, 7%. In 2000, 9%. In 2012, 12%.
To me, this is particularly cool when compared to a state like Alabama or Tennessee. Literally no change in relative immigration from neighbors except for a slow loss of native children.
In fact, you could create a volatility scale for states (how homogeneous is their immigration over time) and it would go from almost zero in the East to crazy in the West. Oregon, Arizona, and Nevada being particularly interesting / volatile states.
I wonder if there's a correlation to the volatility and the general political leanings of those locations. IE, does politics diffuse along these same lines? If California, was 75% "liberal" and 25% "conservative" over time, could we estimate that Idaho has gotten about 7% more liberal in the last 40 years? or is the immigration self selecting? (people want to live near folks like them?)
- jtzhou 12y agoThere are two big trends: - External immigration to large population centers in New York, California, Washington state, the Washington DC area and Illinois. - Inward migration of Americans leaving those denser areas to states such as TX, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, etc. where land is cheaper and the standard of living is higher for the middle class. This is not represented in the graph because it only shows the origin of state residents. http://www.governing.com/gov-data/census/2010-census-state-migration-statistics.html http://www.governing.com/gov-data/census/2010-census-state-m...
- edgyswingset 12y agoI can speak towards migrating to Oregon. My cost of living has dropped by about 25% while my overall quality of life, sans anything money-related, has gone up.
- brewdad 12y agoSSHHH! You can't let the secret out. Remember what we tell the outsiders: "It rains here. All the time. We never see the sun. You'd hate it here." --says the Oregon resident from Michigan by way of Arizona. :)
- seanmcdirmid 12y agoShhhh, this is our line in Seattle. Also, it doesn't apply to the eastern parts of either state. --says Portland-born but long time Seattle resident who now lives in...Beijing (BTW, the pollution is real and not a story just made up to keep you away).