Census: Migration flows highest in Southern California

About 16.8 million people moved into a different county within a year in the U.S., between 2007 and 2011, with the most common county-to-county moves being from Los Angeles to San Bernardino (41,764 people) and Los Angeles to Orange (an estimated 40,764), according to U. S. Census Bureau data released Thursday.

The County-to-County Migration Flows Tables, which use data collected by the American Community Survey between 2007 and 2011, show how many U.S. residents move from one specific county to another during the course of a year.

These statistics show that about 6 percent of the population age 1 and older move in a year across county lines or from abroad. The county-to-county migration flows tables show this information cross-tabulated by educational attainment, individual and household income.

Among all the nation’s counties, Maricopa (Arizona) gained movers from the largest collection of counties (957). Maricopa (which contains the city of Phoenix) also lost movers to the largest number of counties (1,190).

Besides the Los Angeles and Riverside-San Bernardino metro areas, the rest of the top 20 flows of movers also consisted of people moving between counties in the Miami, Detroit, Chicago, Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, New York and Baltimore metro areas.

Other county-level highlights:

• There was a large net influx of movers to the southwest and parts of Florida and Colorado. Counties experiencing a net loss were concentrated along the Southern California coast, South Florida and the New York metro area.

• When including flows from abroad, one of the five largest flows was the 35,209 who moved from Asia to Los Angeles County.

• Besides Maricopa, four other counties lost movers to more than 1,000 different counties: Cook, Ill.; Los Angeles, Calif; Harris, Texas; and San Diego, Calif.

• The largest domestic migration inflows of the population 25 and older with graduate or professional degrees were to Los Angeles County, Calif., New York County (Manhattan), N.Y.,  Cook County (Chicago) Ill., Middlesex County, Mass.; and Fairfax County, Va. Each of the counties, except for Fairfax, also had among the five largest outflows for this group.

• There were relatively large flows of graduate or professional degree holders from Los Angeles to Manhattan, the District of Columbia to Manhattan, the District of Columbia to Cook County, Ill., Manhattan to Middlesex County, Mass., Cook to Manhattan, Manhattan to Los Angeles and Middlesex to Manhattan.

• About 7,850 graduate or professional degree holders moved into Suffolk County (Boston), Mass., during the one-year period. That means that for every 100 residents in the county with this level of education, 9.8 of them moved into the county during the previous year ─ among the highest rates of any large county in the nation. Conversely, for every 100 residents with this level of education, 13.8 moved to a different county, also among the highest rates in the country. (Educational attainment levels pertain to the time a person is surveyed, rather than the time of the move.)