The COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States: Who Moved, Why, and Where?

Abstract COVID-19 affected the social, economic, and spatial patterns of people’s lives. Families adjusted their places of work, where their children were educated, and their interactions with relatives and friends. The disease weakened some individuals’ and families’ attachment to their places of residence and prompted some to reconsider where to live. We examine the selectivity, reasons, and types of COVID-induced migration in the U.S. during the first year of the pandemic. Using Pew’s American Trends Panel, we find that 3 percent relocated by June 2020 because of the pandemic. One-third of movers feared infection, another quarter wished to be with family, and nearly half were guided by educational and economic considerations. By November, four out of ten were still living outside their origin community, a third dwelled elsewhere in their origin community, and a quarter had returned to their pre-COVID home. Multivariate analyses show that COVID migrants differed from ordinary migrants and from non-movers. High rates of COVID mortality in county of residence heightened the likelihood of moving. Compared with COVID migrants whose concerns were mainly educational and economic, those who feared infection tended to be younger, native-born, non-metro residents, religiously weak, and politically Republican; their counterparts who wished to be close to family were in mid-life, women, college educated, and more likely Republicans. The differences between inter-community migrants and intra-community/return migrants were limited to only a few characteristics i.e., type of residence, educational and economic attainments, and mortality rates in initial county of residence.