This report deals essentially with two major sets of statistics on population mobility from April 1955 to April 1960. The first consists of national statistics on mobility status by demographic, social, and economic characteristics, including statistics on household or family heads by the characteristics of their housing. Because of the high degree of association between mobility status and age, cross-classifications by other characteristics are in most cases given by age. For similar reasons, there are also frequent cross-classifications with sex and color. The second major set of data is for geographic areas (regions, geographic divisions, States, and State economic areas). For these areas the tables include;(1) Thedistribution of the population by mobility status, as described below; (2) in-migrants, out-migrants, and net migration; (3) streams of migration between areas, i.e., the number of persons living in a given area in 1955 but in another specified area in 1960. Considerably less information is given on the characteristics of movers for these geographic areas than is shown for the United States as whole; but, nonetheless, these statistics are frequently shown by color and somewhat less often by age or sex.

Separate tables are presented for college students away from their parental home, institutional inmates, and members of the Armed Forces (tables 18, 19, and 20, respectively). There is, however, no way of identifying from the data collected those persons whose 1955 residence was in a college, an institution or in an Armed Forces installation, from which they moved during the period.

The data on residence in 1955 were derived from the answers to the following questions on the Household Questionnaire:


Residence on April 1, 1955, is the usual place of residence five years prior to enumeration. Residence in 1955 was used in conjunction with residence in 1960 to determine the mobility status of the population. The category "same house as in 1960" includes all persons 5 years old and over who were reported as living in the same house on the date of enumeration in 1960and five years prior to enumeration. Included in the group are persons who had never moved during the five years, as well as those who had moved but by 1960 had returned to their 1955 residence. The category "different house In the United States" includes persons who, on April 1, 1955, lived in the United States in a different house from the one they occupied on April 1, 1960. These persons ware subdivided into three groups according to their 1955 residence; viz., "different house, same county," "different county, same State," and "different State." The last category was further subdivided into contiguous and noncontiguous States. States have been classified as contiguous if their boundaries touch at any point.² For some distributions the different county category was subdivided into region, division, and State of 1955 residence. The category "abroad" includes those with residence in a foreign country or an outlying area of the United States in 1955. (In the coding of this item, persons who lived in Alaska or Hawaii in 1955 but in other States In 1960 were classified as living in a different State in 1955.)

Persons 5 years old and over who had indicated they had moved into their present residence after April 1, 1955, tout for whom, or for members of their families, sufficiently complete and consistent information concerning residence on April 1, 1955, was not collected, are included in the group "moved, place of residence in 1955 not reported." (Missing information was supplied if data were available for other members of the family.) Also included in the category "moved, place of residence in 1955 not reported" are persons who gave no indication as to their movement since April 1, 1955,' but who, on the basis of the final edited entry for year moved (for which all nonresponses were replaced by assigned entries), were classified as having moved into their present house since April 1, 1955.

The census statistics on mobility provide information on the number of movers, migrants, and on in- movement and out-movement for a given area. The census statistics, however, do not take into account all the different moves that were made in the 5-year period. For example, some persons in the same house at the two dates had moved during the 5-year period, but by the time of enumeration had returned to their 1955 residence. Other persons made two or more moves. Some movers during the 5-year period had died and others had gone abroad. Regardless of the number of moves made, a person Is counted only once as a mover in the census data. Persons who moved were not asked the number of miles they had moved. The census data, however, provide some indication of the relative distance involved in the moves. On the average, a person who moves within a county moves a shorter distance than one who moves to another county in the same SEA. He in turn moves a shorter distance than a mover to another SEA, State, geographic division, or region.

Comparison of the characteristics of migrants and other movers with the characteristics of the nonmovers gives some indications of the selectivity of migration and other types of mobility. It must be borne in mind, however, that the characteristics relate to the period after the move and some do not necessarily relate to the period before the move.

A 5-year period, as chosen for use in the 1960 Census, should give a more representative picture of recent motility than does the 1-year period that has been used in other censuses and surveys. Nonetheless, the last five years of the 1950-60 decade may have had a somewhat different mobility history from the first five years. Hence, figures on net movements computed from the statistics of this report may indicate a different net direction or suggest a different annual rate as compared with estimates for the same areas made by the "residual" method for the entire decade, even when allowance is made for variations in coverage. The data presented in this report will permit analysis of the net exchange between regions, divisions, States, and SEA's.

Information on the quality of data on mobility status for 1960 is available from findings from the Content Evaluation Study (CES) of the 1960 Census, a postcensal study in which an intensive reinterview approach was used for a sample of census respondents. In the CES, measures of response error were developed with respect to selected items of information by comparing and reconciling the responses obtained in the reinterview with the corresponding census entries.

Analysis of the CES data on mobility status indicates that, in general, the tendency is for the census to overestimate the more stable elements in the society and to underestimate the more mobile. The census showed fewer people living in a different State or abroad five years earlier than actually were living in a different State or abroad, and conversely, more people living in the same State, same county, and same house five years earlier than the resurvey revealed to be the case. One measure of the extent, of the discrepancy is the distribution of Interstate migrants in the resurvey by their classification in the census enumeration. Of those classified as interstate migrants in the CES, 85.6 percent were classified the same in the census, and the remainder were classified as having lived in the same State five years earlier (13.5 percent) or abroad (0.9 percent).

The total number of interstate migrants enumerated by the census is 92.0 percent of the number estimated in the resurvey. Hence, the census also enumerated some persons as interstate migrants, who on the basis of the resurvey actually were not interstate migrants. Both sets of comparisons indicate that the census count is an underestimate of interstate migrants.

The results of the 1960 Content Evaluation Study are not entirely comparable with those of the 1950 Post-Enumeration Survey. In considering comparative results, it should be noted that reported differences in quality may, in part, arise from improvement in procedures in the 1960 evaluation study, changes in accuracy between the 1960 and the 1950 Censuses, or both. For a more comprehensive report of the results of the evaluation studies, the reader is referred to 1960 Census reports in the Evaluation and Research Program Series and to Bureau of the Census Technical Paper No. 4, The Post-Enumeration Survey; 1950.

Some minor inconsistencies are present in the 1960 Census statistics on mobility, as revealed in an analysis of data in tables 4 and 5, where mobility status is cross-classified by year moved into the present house. Some of the inconsistencies are only apparent, but others are real. For nonmovers ("same house" in 1955), those who reported dates after April 1, 1955, could well have responded correctly since the question applied to the date of the last move and the persons may have left their housing units and returned, both during the 5-year period. On the other hand, the relatively few movers ("different house" in 1955) who are shown as having moved on or before April 1, 1955, represent erroneous classifications. No attempt was made to eliminate these inconsistencies by editing.

Similar questions on mobility were asked in the 1950 and 1940 Censuses. However, the questions in the 1950 Census, as well as in annual supplements to the Current Population Survey, applied to residence one year earlier rather than five years earlier. In the 1950 reports, migrants reporting the State but not the county of residence in 1949 appear in the known categories of migration status and State of origin, where as in this report such persons were all assigned to the category "moved, place of residence in 1955 not reported." This partial nonresponse group comprised 411,590 migrants in 1950; the corresponding figure for 1960 is not known.

Although the questions in the 1940 Census covered a 5-year period, comparability with that census is reduced somewhat because of different definitions and categories of tabulation. In 1940, the population was classified in terms of four categories: Migrants, non-migrants, immigrants, and migration status not reported. The first group, "migrants," included those persons who in 1935 lived in a county (or quasi-county) different from the one in which they were living in 1940. The second group, "nonmigrants," comprised those persons living in the same house in 1935 as in 1940 as well as persons living in a different house in the same county or quasi-county. The group classified as "immigrant" in 1940 is comparable to the group classified in 1960 as "abroad." The 1940 classification, "migration status not reported," included persons for whom information supplied was not sufficient for the assignment of a more specific category.

The median is presented in connection with the data on age and income. It is the value which divides the distribution into two equal parts, one-half the cases falling below this value and one-half the cases exceeding this value.

A plus (+) or minus (-) sign after the median indicates that the median is above or below that number. For example, a median of $10,000+ for income indicates that the median fell in the interval "$10,000 or more.

In accordance with Census practice dating back to 1790 each person enumerated in the 1960 Census was counted as an inhabitant of his usual place of residence or usual place of abode, that is, the place where he lives and sleeps most of the time. This place is not necessarily the same as his legal residence, voting residence, or domicile, although, in the vast majority of cases, the use of these different bases of classification would produce identical results.

The questions on place of residence in 1955 were supposed to refer to usual residence also. The respondent was not, however, furnished all the rules that the enumerator was instructed to use in determining the respondent's usual residence in 1960. Hence, in some cases, another type of residence may have been reported.

In general, the urban population comprises all persons living in urbanized areas and in places of 2,500 inhabitants or more outside urbanized areas. More specifically, according to the definition adopted for use in the 1960 Census, the urban population comprises all persons living in (a) places of 2,500 inhabitants or more incorporated as cities, boroughs, villages, and towns (except towns in New England, New York, and Wisconsin); (b) the densely settled urban fringe, whether incorporated or unincorporated, of urbanized areas; (c) towns in New England and townships in New Jersey and Pennsylvania which contain no incorporated municipalities as subdivisions and have either 25,000 inhabitants or more or a population of 2,500 to 25,000 and a density of 1,500 persons or more per square mile; (d) counties in States other than the New England States, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania that have no incorporated municipalities within their boundaries and have a density of 1,500 persons or more per square mile; and (e) unincorporated places of 2,500 inhabitants or more. The population not classified as urban constitutes the rural population.

The rural population is subdivided into the rural-farm population, which comprises all rural residents living on farms, and the rural-nonfarm population, which comprises the remaining rural population. In the 1960 Census, the farm population consists of persons living in rural territory on places of 10 or »ore acres from which sales of farm products amounted to $50 or more in 1959 or on places of less than 10 acres from which sales of farm products' amounted to $250 or more in 1959. All persons living in group garters are classified as nonfarm except the relatively few living in workers' quarters (including quarters for migratory agricultural workers) that are located on a farm or ranch.

Except in New England, an SMSA is a county or group of contiguous counties which contains at least one city of 50,000 inhabitants or more, or "twin cities" with a combined population of at least 50,000. In addition to the county, or counties, containing such a city or cities, contiguous counties are included in an SMSA if, according to certain criteria, they are essentially metropolitan in character and are socially and economically integrated with the central city. In New England, SMSA's consist of towns and cities, rather than counties.

State economic areas are relatively homogeneous subdivisions of States. They consist of single counties or groups of counties which have similar economic and social characteristics. The boundaries of these areas have been drawn in such a way that each State is subdivided into relatively few parts, with each part having certain significant characteristics which distinguishes it from adjoining areas. The SEA's, as delineated, are shown on the map of the United States below. The counties comprising each SEA are listed in the appendix.

The State economic areas were originally delineated for the 1950 Census. The 1960 set of State economic areas represents a limited revision of the 1950 areas. This revision takes into account changes in the definitions of standard metropolitan statistical areas, but no attempt was made to reexamine the original principles or to apply them to more recent data relating to homogeneity. In addition, State economic areas were delineated for Alaska and Hawaii for the first time. As a result of the revision, the number of areas was increased from 501 to 509. (In the publications of the 1950 Census of Population, combinations of areas reduced the number of areas to 453.)

The combination of counties into State economic areas has been made for the entire country, and in this process the larger standard metropolitan statistical areas (those in 1960 with a central city of 50,000 or more and a total population of 100,000 or more) have been recognized as metropolitan State economic areas. When a standard metropolitan statistical area is located in two or more States or economic sub- regions, each State part and each part in an economic sub-region becomes a separate metropolitan State economic area. In New England this correspondence of standard metropolitan State economic areas and standard metropolitan statistical areas does not exist because State economic areas are composed of whole counties, whereas standard metropolitan statistical areas are built up from towns. Here, a county with more than half its population in one or more standard metropolitan statistical areas is classified as a metropolitan State economic area if the county or a combination of counties containing the standard metropolitan statistical area or areas has 100,000 inhabitants or more.

The age classification is based on the age of the person in completed years as of April 1, 1960, as determined from the reply to a question on month and year of birth.

The term "color" refers to the division of population into two groups, white and nonwhite. The color group designated as "nonwhite" includes Negroes, American Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, Hawaiian, Asian Indians, Malayans, Eskimos, Aleuts, etc. Persons of Mexican birth or ancestry who are not definitely of Indian or other nonwhite race are classified as white.

The data on year moved into present house refer to the most recent move the person made. Thus, a person who had moved back into the same house (or apartment) in which he had previously lived was asked to give the date at which he began the present occupancy. If a person had moved from one apartment to another in the same building, he was expected to give the year when he moved into the present apartment. The category "always lived here" consists of persons who reported that their residence on April 1, 1960, was the same as their residence at birth and who had never had any other place of residence.

School enrollment is shown for persons 14 to 24 years old. Persons were included as enrolled in school if they were reported as attending or enrolled in a "regular" school or college at any time between February 1, 1960, and the time of enumeration. Regular schooling is that which may advance a person toward an elementary school certificate or high school diploma, or a college, university, or professional degree. Schooling that was not obtained in a regular school and schooling from a tutor or through correspondence courses were counted only If the credits obtained were regarded as transferable to a school in the regular school system. Schooling which is generally regarded as not regular includes that which is given in nursery schools, in specialized vocational, trade, or business schools) in on-the-job training; and through correspondence courses.
Elementary school, as defined here, includes grades 1 to 8, and high school includes grades 9 to 12. College includes junior or community colleges, regular 4-year colleges, and graduate or professional schools. In general, a "public" school is defined as any school which is controlled and supported primarily by a local, State, or Federal agency. All other schools are "private" schools.

The data on years of school completed were derived from the answers to the two questions: (a) "What is the highest grade (or year) of regular school he has ever attended?" and (b) "Did he finish this grade (or year)?" Enumerators were instructed to obtain the approximate equivalent grade in the American school system for persons whose highest grade of attendance was in a foreign school system, whose highest level of attendance was in an ungraded school, whose highest level of schooling was measured by "readers " or whose training by a tutor was regarded as qualifying under the "regular" school definition. Persons were to answer "No" to the second question if they were attending school, had completed only part of a grade before they dropped out, or failed to pass the last grade attended.
The number in each category of highest grade of school completed represents the combination of (a) persons who reported that they had attended the indicated grade and finished it, and (b) those who had attended the next higher grade but had not finished it.

A veteran is defined as a person who has served in the Armed Forces of the United States. All other persons are classified as nonveterans. Because relatively few females have served in the Armed Forces of this country, questions on veteran status were asked only of males. Furthermore, the statistics on veteran status presented here are for civilian males only and do not cover persons who were in the Armed Forces at the time of the census.

This classification refers to the marital status of the person at the time of enumeration. Persons classified as "married" comprise, therefore, both those who have been married only once and those who remarried after having been widowed or divorced. Persons reported as separated (either legally separated or otherwise absent from the spouse because of marital discord) are classified as a subcategory of married persons. The enumerators were instructed to report persons in common-law marriages as married and persons whose only marriage had been annulled as single. Persons "ever married" are those in the categories married (including separated), widowed, and divorced.
The number of married men may be different from the number of married women for an area because of the absence of husbands or wives from the country, because the husband and wife have different places of residence, because of the methods used to inflate the sample data, or for other reasons.
A married person with "spouse present" is a man or woman whose spouse was enumerated as a member of the same household even though he or she may have been temporarily absent on business or vacation, visiting, in a hospital, etc., at the time of enumeration. Persons classified as "married, spouse absent" include both those who are separated because of marital discord and those whose spouse is absent for other reasons, such as service in the Armed Forces or employment at a considerable distance from home.

A household consists of all the persons who occupy a housing unit. A house, an apartment or other group of rooms, or a single room, is regarded as a housing unit when it is occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters; that is, when the occupants do not live and eat with any other persons in the structure and there is either (1) direct access from the outside or through a common hall or (2) a kitchen or cooking equipment for the exclusive use of the occupants.

All persons who are not members of households are regarded as living in group quarters. Group quarters are living arrangements for institutional inmates or for other groups containing five or more persons unrelated to the person in charge. Most of the persons in group quarters live in rooming houses, college dormitories, military barracks, or institutions. Inmates of institutions are persons for whom care or custody Is provided in such places as homes for delinquent or dependent children; homes and schools for the mentally or physically handicapped; places providing specialized medical care for persons with mental disorders, tuberculosis, or other chronic disease; nursing and domiciliary homes for the aged and dependent; and prisons and jails.

For persons in households, several categories of relationship to head of household are recognized in this report:
1. The head of the household is the member reported as the head by the household respondent. However, if a married woman living with her husband is reported as the head, her husband is classified as the head for the purpose of census tabulations.
2. The wife of a head of a household is a woman married to and living with a household head. This category includes women in common-law marriages as well as women in formal marriages.
3. A child of the head is a son, daughter, stepchild, or adopted child of the head of the household. "Child of head" is a more inclusive category than "own child of head" (defined below).
4. An other relative of the head is a person related to the head of the household by blood, marriage, or adoption, but not included specifically in another category.
5. A nonrelative of the head is any member of the household who is not related to the household head. This category Includes lodgers (roomers and partners, relatives of such persons, and foster children) and resident employees (maids, hired farm hands, etc.).

A family consists of two or more persons in the same household who are related to each other by blood, marriage, or adoption; all persons living in one household who are related to each other are regarded as one family in a primary family, the head of the family la the head of a household. Other families are secondary families. A "husband-wife" family is a family in which the head and his wife are enumerated as members of the same household.

The data on employment status relate to the calendar week prior to the date on which the respondents filled their Household Questionnaires or were interviewed by enumerators. This week is not the same for all respondents because not all persons were enumerated during the same week.

Employed persons comprise all civilians 14 years old and over who were either (a) "at work"--those who did any work for pay or profit, or worked without pay for 15 hours or more on a family farm or in a family business; or (b) were "with a job but not at work" those who did not work and were not looking for work but had a job or business from which they were temporarily absent because of bad weather, industrial dispute, vacation, illness, or other personal reasons.

Persons are classified as unemployed if they were 14 years old and over and not "at work" but looking for work. A person is considered as looking for work not only if he actually tried to find work but also if he had made such efforts recently (i.e., within the past 60 days) and was awaiting the results of these efforts. Persons waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been laid off or furloughed are also counted as unemployed.

The "civilian labor force" includes all persons classified as employed or unemployed, as described above. The "labor force" also includes members of the Armed Forces (persons on active duty with the United States Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard).

Persons "not in the labor force" comprise all those 14 years old and over who are not classified as members of the labor force, including persons doing only incidental unpaid family work (less than 15 hours during the week).

The data on occupation in this report are for employed persons and refer to the job held during the week for which employment status was reported. For persons employed at two or more jobs, the data refer to the job at which the person worked the greatest number of hours. The occupation statistics presented here are based on the detailed systems developed for the 1960 Census; see 1960 Census of Population, Classified Index of Occupations and Industries, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1960.

Information on income for the calendar year 1959 was requested from all persons 14 years old and over in the sample. "Total income" is the sum of amounts reported separately for wage or salary income, self-employment income, and other income. Wage or salary income is defined as the total money earnings received for work performed as an employee. It represents the amount received before deductions for personal income taxes, Social Security, bond purchases, union dues, etc. Self-employment income is defined as net money income (gross receipts minus operating expenses) from a business, farm, or professional enterprise in which the person was engaged on his own account. Other income includes money income received from such sources as net rents, interest, dividends, Social Security benefits, pensions, veterans' payments, unemployment insurance, and public assistance or other governmental payments, and periodic receipts from insurance policies or annuities. Not included as income are money received from the sale of property (unless the recipient was engaged in the business of selling such property), the value of income "in kind," withdrawals of bank deposits, money borrowed, tax refunds, and gifts and lump-sum inheritances or insurance payments.

In the statistics on family income, the combined incomes of all members of each family are treated as a single amount. Although the time period covered by the income statistics is the calendar year 1959, the composition of families refers to the time of enumeration. For most of the families, however, the income reported was received by persons who were members of the family throughout 1959.