Dear Lowell,
My father was a construction worker and our family had to move a lot when I was growing up. We were a large family with five kids, so finding adequate housing was often a real problem.
Some of the places we had to live in were downright dismal, but my mother was always able to make any house feel like it was our home. She would often say, “ We are all together, so that makes this place our home”.
Recently I met a new friend who has lived all of his life (more than 50 years!) in the town where he was born. When he asked me where I was “from” I had to think a few minutes and then I replied, “All over!” Afterwards, I tried to remember all the states I had lived in-it totaled at least 11 – maybe more.
Looking back, my nomadic upbringing was somewhat of a mixed blessing. I did get to meet lots of interesting people and learned early in life to take the initiative when it came to making friends quickly. And yet I always envied those who stayed in one place and could claim of having roots in a community.
My question: How many Americans still live in the same area where they were born?
Vern S. – San Francisco. CA
Hi Vern-
It sounds like your mother had a special talent for keeping the family bond together during the frequent family relocations.
As you suspect, very few Americans have lived in as many states as you have. In fact, according to a recent nationwide survey by The Pew Center, only one out of seven (15%) Americans have lived in four or more states. Most people stay pretty close to home.
Your new friend belongs to that fairly large segment of the nation’s families that have chosen to stay put. Currently more than one out of every three (37%) Americans live in the same town or city in which they were born and more than half (57%) of all Americans have never moved from their home state.
Those Americans who have chosen to stay put seem to validate your mother’s wisdom. Many of them say that at least 12 members of their extended families live within an hour’s drive of them, and four out of ten said more than 10 relatives live nearby.
But there’s more to this idea of home, it seems. The Pew study revealed that “Home means different things to different people”:
- Among U.S.-born adults who have lived in more than one community, nearly four-in-ten (38%) say the place they consider home isn’t where they’re living now – it’s somewhere else.
- For Americans who have lived in at least one place besides their original hometown: 26% say it’s where they were born or raised; 22% say it’s where they live now; 18% say it’s where they have lived the longest; 15% say it’s where their family comes from; and 4% say it is where they went to high school.”
Good luck to you, Vern, wherever home is to you!
-Lowell
Average American Facts 