Residential Mobility and Living Arrangements among the Elderly: Changing Patterns in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas

Abstract

Using data from the 1960 and 1970 Public Use Samples and the 1975 Current Population Survey, this study examines the relationship between residential mobility and living arrangements among the elderly. Particular attention is given to temporal change in that relationship as well as to metropolitan-nonmetropolitan differentials. Persons with living arrangements indicative of greater dependency (i.e., persons who are other relatives of household heads) evidence greater mobility than those with greater independence (i.e., primary individuals and heads or spouses of heads). Results further suggest that outmigration from nonmetropolitan areas is particularly selective of those elderly in dependent type living arrangements. Over time, there is also a noticeable increase in migration of heads or spouses, especially from metropolitan to nonmetropolitan environments. It appears that temporal shifts in living arrangements partly account for changes in residential mobility within and between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas.