MIGRATION AND ITS IMPACTS ON THE NORTHEAST 



by 

 A.E. Luloff and T.E. Steahr^-' 



INTRODUCTION 



The number of persons living in the Northeast Region and their 

 demographic characteristics have a basic impact on all areas of planning. 

 Changes in the structure, consumption patterns, and residential choices 

 of a population define, in part, the problems facing the Region in 

 technology, energy, food production and distribution, land use, and the 

 general quality of life. A major way In which populations change over time 

 is through the migration process. Individuals and families move into the 

 Northeast while others decide to change their place of residence to 

 outside the Region. It is this net interchange of people leaving and 

 entering the Region which can fundamentally alter the structure and 

 distribution of the Northeast's population. A major purpose of this 

 report is to identify and describe selected patterns of net migration to 

 the Northeast from 1960 to 1970 and from 1970 to 1976. The implications 

 of these changes for policy and planning issues will then be discussed. 



PATTERNS OF MIGRATION (1960-1970) 



A brief view of the national context of which the Northeast is a 

 part is provided in Table 1, showing net migration for each of the major 

 regions for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties by color from 1960 

 to 1970. Nationally, the pattern of net outmigration from nonmetropolitan 

 counties (more than 1.7 million more persons moved out than moved in) is 

 a continuation of the historical trend of rapid growth in metropolitan 

 areas. As the United States became increasingly urban each decade since 

 1900, metropolitan areas experienced a net inmigration at the expense of 

 a net outmigration of persons from nonmetropolitan areas. This was the 

 case during the 1960's for both white and nonwhite persons. 



During the 1960's on a regional basis, the Northeast was the only 

 significant exception to this national pattern. From 1960 to 1970, 

 nonmetropolitan areas reported a net inmigration of 175,525 persons, which 

 was larger than the net inmigration to metropolitan areas of the Region. 

 The largest proportion of the nonmetropolitan gain was white inmigration. 

 Interestingly, metropolitan areas in the Northeast experienced a net 

 outmigration of white persons from 1960 to 1970 but this was offset by a 

 heavy net inmigration of nonwhites during the same period. Thus, popula- 

 tion gains in the metropolitan Northeast due to net migration was a 

 nonwhite phenomenon during the 1960'a, not exceeded in magnitude by any 

 other region in the nation. 



— A.E. Luloff, Institute of Natural and Environmental Resources, 

 University of New Hampshire, and T.E. Steahr, Department of Agricultural 

 Economics and Rural Sociology, University of Connecticut. 



