Carsey Institute's New Study

Older Americans retiring to rural areas quickly integrate in their new communities and bring significant social and intellectual capital to those communities, finds a new issue brief from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. The brief is among the few studies to consider social rather than economic impacts of older in-migration to rural areas.

"Of the 10 percent of Americans over 60 who moved between counties from 1995 to 2000, a disproportionate share moved to rural communities," says report co-author Nina Glasgow, a senior research associate in the Department of Development Sociology at Cornell University. "If this trend continues as more Baby Boomers reach retirement age, older newcomers will continue to have a major impact on some rural areas."

Read the brief.

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The Carsey Institute conducts policy research on vulnerable children, youth, and families and on sustainable community development.