Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development

 

 

To Stay or Go? New Insights into Northeast Rural Households’ Intention to Move

Moving van full of boxes, parked outside a row of townhomes.
Credit: Adobe Stock. All rights reserved.

Data from the NER-Stat Baseline Survey 2024

Overview

The Baseline Survey 2024 is a nationwide household survey conducted jointly by the Regional Rural Development Centers (RRDCs). It is designed to better understand the conditions, issues, and challenges facing residents of both rural and urban communities across the United States.

The Northeast segment of the survey (NER-Stat) includes about 2,000 rural households located in the 12 states and the District of Columbia served by the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development (NERCRD). In this data brief, findings from the survey shed light on which rural households are more likely to move and their reasons for wanting to do so.

A printer-friendly PDF is available here.

Key Insights

  • About one in five households surveyed intended to leave the current place of residence in the next 12 months.
  • Northeast households with younger age, lower level of educational attainment, larger household size, and lower income per household member are generally more likely to move.
  • The top 3 sectors of employment whose employees intend to stay are arts and recreation, sciences and technology, and manufacturing.
  • The top 3 sectors of employment whose employees intend to leave are enterprise management, accommodation and food services, and administrative support.
  • The top reasons for moving include (unaffordable) cost of living, (lack of) socializing, and (lack of) community ties.
Pie chart showing 21.1% of respondents intend to move in next 12 months, while 78.9% intend to stay. Sample size is 1,947.
Figure 1. Intention to move in the next 12 months

Among the 1,947 valid respondents in the Northeast U.S., 21.1% reported an intention to move, while the remaining 78.9% intended to remain in their current place of residence.

Bar graph showing intent to move by educational attainment. Those with a HS diploma or less reported intent to move at greatest rate (22.5% and 23.9%, respectively). 13.4% of those those with a bachelors degree, roughly 17% of those with technician school or community college, and 19.4% of those with graduate degree reported intent to move.
Figure 2. Intention to move by level of educational attainment.

Respondents with a high school diploma or less were more likely to report an intention to move (more than one-fifth indicated that they were willing to relocate) than respondents with higher levels of educational attainment. Those with bachelor’s degrees showed the strongest attachment to their current place of residence. Notably, respondents with graduate or professional degrees reported greater willingness to move than those with associate or bachelor’s degrees, suggesting that the relationship between education and migration intentions may be nonlinear.

Bar graph showing a very clear pattern of decreasing intention to move with increasing age. 36% of 18 to 24 year olds report intent to move, 32% of 25 to 34 year olds, 25.3% of 35-44 year olds, 12.6% of 55 to 64 year olds, 7% of 65-74 year olds and 3.4% of those 75 and older.
Figure 3. Intention to move by age

Younger respondents reported a greater willingness to relocate, whereas older respondents appeared more attached to their current places of residence. Respondents aged 55 and younger were more likely than the overall sample average to indicate an intention to move, while those aged 55 and older were less likely than average to do so. Approximately one in three respondents under 35 reported that they were willing to move within the next 12 months, while this share declined to fewer than one in ten among respondents aged 65 or older.

Bar graph showing intent to move by household size. Larger households reported intent to move at higher rates. 32.8% of households with 6-20 people; 21.4% of households of 3-5; 14% of 2-person households; and 18.7% of single-person housholds reported intent to move.
Figure 4. Intention to move by household size.

Respondents living in households with 6 or more members were more likely to report an intention to move within the 12 months following the survey, whereas those living in smaller households were less likely to do so. One possible explanation, consistent with economic theories of household migration, is that larger households, particularly those with children, may be more likely to relocate in search of improved educational opportunities and other family-oriented amenities.

Bar graph showing intent to move by household income. Lowest income households (less than ten thousand dollars per person) were most likely to move at 28.2%, while only 13.9% of the highest earning households (more than sixty thousand dollars per person) reported intent to move. The in-between income brackets ranged from 13.4% to 21.3%.
Figure 5. Intention to move by income per capita.

Individuals living in households with lower income per household member appear more likely to report an intention to move, although the overall relationship is not strongly linear or uniform across income groups. More than one in four respondents in households with less than $10,000 in income per household member indicated that they were willing to move in the near future, compared with fewer than one in five respondents in households with more than $30,000 in income per household member.

Bar graph showing intent to move by sector of employment. As noted in text, employees in enterprise management, accommodation and food services, and administrative support were those most likely to move.
Figure 6. Intention to move by sector of employment. Levels of significance different from weighted average: ***0.01; **0.05, *0.1)

Figure 6 presents migration intentions by employment sector in the Northeast. Employees in enterprise management, accommodation and food services, and administrative support services reported the highest willingness to move. In contrast, workers in arts and recreation; professional, scientific, and technical services; and manufacturing showed the strongest attachment to their current places of residence. Notably, employees in sectors often considered highly geographically mobile (such as mining and extraction or construction) were not substantially more likely to report an intention to move higher than the overall working-class average of 22.8%.

Bar graph showing top four reasons given for moving from one rural area to another rural area: 30.7% reported cost of living; 18% reported socializing opportunities; 17.7% reported neighborhood; and 17.7% reported community ties.
Figure 7. Top four reasons for moving from one rural area to another.
Bar graph showing top four reasons given for moving from rural area to urban area: 28.9% reported socializing opportunities; 26.7% reported public transportation; 26.7% reported community ties; 26.7 reported cost of living.
Figure 8. Top four reasons for moving from a rural area to an urban area
Bar graph showing top four reasons given for moving from urban area to rural area: 34.7% reported cost of living; 32.7% reported traffic noise; 29.6% reported neighborhood; 29.6% reported socializing.
Figure 9. Top four reasons for moving from an urban area to a rural area.
Bar graph showing top four reasons given for moving from one urban area to another urban area: 26.8% reported neighborhood; 24% reported socializing; 24% reported cost of living; 23.5% reported distance to someone.
Figure 10. Top 4 reasons for moving from one urban area to another.

Among respondents willing to move between rural locations, the four most frequently cited reasons were cost of living (30.7%), opportunities for socializing (18.0%), neighborhood characteristics (17.7%), and community ties (17.7%). For respondents considering a move from a rural to an urban area, the leading reasons were opportunities for socializing (28.9%), access to public transportation (26.7%), community ties (26.7%), and cost of living (26.7%).

Among respondents considering a move from an urban to a rural area, the most common reasons were cost of living (34.7%), traffic noise (32.7%), neighborhood characteristics (29.6%), and opportunities for socializing (29.6%). Finally, among those willing to move between urban locations, neighborhood characteristics (26.8%), opportunities for socializing (24.0%), cost of living (24.0%), and distance to someone important to them (23.5%) were the leading motivations.

Across all four potential migration directions in the Northeast U.S., cost of living and opportunities for socializing consistently emerged as leading reasons for considering relocation. These findings suggest that rural development practitioners seeking to stem population loss should prioritize affordable housing while also investing in the social infrastructure that supports interaction, belonging, and durable community ties.

About this Research

Author:

Yuan Zhuang, PhD Candidate, Penn State Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education.

Methods and dataset:

The NER-Stat: Baseline Survey 2024 is a collaborative initiative developed by the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, the Southern Rural Development Center, and Auburn University. The survey explores essential topics related to household, business, and community well-being. It aims to learn more about the conditions, issues, and challenges faced by rural and urban communities and their residents in the Northeast Region. Conducted as a 20-minute online survey through the Qualtrics platform, it covers a broad spectrum of topics, including household demographics, income, workforce participation, entrepreneurship, caregiving, housing, broadband access, migration and staying behavior, civic engagement, community belonging, health, food security, well-being, and environmental concerns. The survey was designed to maximize participation across a diverse range of household types, geographic locations, genders, ages, and racial and ethnic groups, ensuring comprehensive and balanced representation.

The survey was conducted in 2024 with 1,947 responses from the Northeast Region through a Qualtrics online panel. The technical documentation, survey codebook, and the open access dataset are available for download:

Funding Acknowledgement:

This research was supported in part by the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development and the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, two of the nation’s four Regional Rural Development Centers (RRDCs). The RRDCs are funded by U.S. Congress through the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s annual appropriations process. The NERCRD also receives funding from Hatch/Multi-State Appropriations under Project #PEN04802 and Accession #7003365, the Northeastern Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors, and the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. Any opinions are solely those of the authors.

Suggested Citation for this data brief

Zhuang, Yuan. (2026). Northeast Rural Households’ Intention to Move: New Insights from the NER-Stat Baseline Survey 2024. NER-Stat Data Brief. Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development.

Authors: Yuan Zhuang, PhD Candidate, Penn State Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education

Publication: Published by NERCRD   Date Published: August 24, 2026

Tags

All Publications