What Are Those Dag Nabbed Old Folks Doing Now?

Map credit: StatChat

Map credit: StatChat

Virginia typically ranks well in lists of top states for retirees, observes Hamilton Lombard at the StatChat blog, but more 65- to 74-year-olds left the state than moved in over the past decade. As for the college towns that are reputed to be such great retirement magnets, Blacksburg and Charlottesville haven’t seen much of an influx at all.

Still, Virginia’s old folks are on the move within the Commonwealth — to rural areas and exurbs mostly. Writes Lombard:

County level migration data also shows that retirees were more likely to move out of, rather than in to urban areas during the past decade, and this was true not only in large urban areas, but also in smaller cities such as Danville or Roanoke. Counties near urban areas experienced little growth in their retiree age population from in migration.

Instead, the counties with the largest growth of in-migrating retirees were rural, mostly east of the Blue Ridge, and within an hour of large urban areas.

Lombard suggests that retirees are drawn by the lower cost of living in the counties they are moving to. But he foresees problems. Seniors will continue to seek medical-center services in the major metropolitan areas, which requires driving lengthy distances. But driving becomes more problematic as elders age. “While both retirees and rural counties have benefited from recent trends,” he writes, “the next decades will present challenges as well to retirees and to the communities in which they live.”

— JAB