U.S. movers are southbound, Census Bureau says

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The South was the only region to increase in population as a result of migration within the United States last year, according to new reports released Thursday by the Census Bureau.

The first report, "Geographical Mobility," shows the South gained 227,000 people, while the Northeast lost 252,000 people. The numbers do not include people who immigrated to the United States from abroad.

Demographers and sociologists attribute the southbound movement to migration of African-Americans, an increase of Hispanics in the labor force, and general economic growth in the region.

"Blacks have been migrating into the South in the last decade or so," said Merle Black, professor of politics and government at Atlanta's Emory University. "There are more jobs here. After the 60's, and civil rights, this is where the job growth has been. Because of the lack of unionization, industries have moved back to the South."

Most of the movement to the South has come from the West, which Black said was a new trend.

"One thing that caused blacks to move out of the West was the arrival of Hispanics, especially in California," said Everett Lee, a demographer at the University of Georgia. "Blacks were holding jobs and Hispanics came in and accepted even lower pay."

In a report about black and Hispanic migration to the South, University of Michigan demographer William H. Frey said the South remains "a primarily white-black region," despite the growth of the Hispanic population there.

Besides Florida and Texas, which account for 71 percent of the region's Hispanic growth, the rest of the South gained 2.4 million blacks during the 90's and only 1.4 million Hispanics, according to Frey.

Hispanics have also moved South to work in the meatpacking and textile industries, Black said.

Lee said 4,000-5,000 Hispanics work in Hall County, Georgia, alone, mainly in the chicken business. Twenty percent of the county's population of 139,277 is Hispanic.

The most recent census report shows the South experienced economic growth from 1998-1999, particularly in Georgia and Florida, which saw employment increase 3.5 percent and 5.2 percent respectively. In comparison, California's employment increased only 2.7 percent and New York's only 2 percent.

The overall U.S. moving rate, which measures internal migration, has not changed substantially over the past few years, but the 1999-2000 rate is among the lowest during the past decade.

Between March 1999 and March 2000, 43 million Americans moved. More than half of these moves were within the same county.

The census examines the reason for this internal migration in its second report, "Why People Move." It shows moving decreases as people get older (until retirement age, when it increases), and that long-distance moves are most common among the highly educated, who may be moving for job-related reasons.

Local moves are more likely to be people who rent and want to move to a better neighborhood, said Jason Schachter of the Census Bureau.

Twenty-one percent of those who moved were living in households with incomes of less than $25,000. "The poor are more likely to move for family-related reasons," Schachter said. "They can't make ends meet, so they move in with their mother, or have their mother move in with them."

Thirty-one percent of the poor moved for family-related reasons, compared to 25 percent of the non-poor.

White non-Hispanics had the lowest moving rates of all races, due in part to higher income, education level, and a higher number of homeowners, the Census Bureau found.

Age was also factor in determining who moved last year. About one-third of 20- to 29-year-olds moved in the previous year, more than twice the moving rate of all people one year and older.

At 20 percent, Hispanics and Asian and Pacific Islanders had the highest overall moving rates, followed by blacks at 19 percent.

"One reason why Hispanics may move more than whites is because their age distribution is younger," Schachter said. "Asians are more mobile partially because of age and partially because of education. They're usually more highly educated."

Hispanics are 1.6 times more likely to move as non-Hispanic whites. When accounting for age, that number drops to 1.35 times as likely. Age accounts for a quarter of the difference between the moving rate of whites and Hispanics.

Asians are 1.51 times more likely to move than whites. When accounting for age, that number drops to 1.37 times as likely.