While about 34 percent of the land on the Cape is available for development, the number of new residential building permits is on the rise. In some areas, Cape Cod's sole-source aquifer has been contaminated by incompatible uses. Concerns regarding land use and water quality necessitated the enactment of the Cape Cod Land Bank Act of 1998, which buys and protects undeveloped land. While 236,697 people moved out of Massachusetts between 1990 and 1998, the Cape and Islands region had domestic in-migration of 26,375. This represents an estimated 12.7 percent growth at a time when the population of the Commonwealth grew only 2.2 percent.
Demographic characteristics vary within the region.
This is putting pressure on the limited resources of these towns, and similar challenges are arising elsewhere, as well. Currently, retirees make up roughly one fourth of the Cape's population and account for more than the same percentage of its economic activity. The median age, as well as the proportion of residents 65 and over, is on the rise. The retirement industry increases consumption, broadens the tax base, and provides what some think of as recession-proof income. Education Educational attainment for the region is higher than that for the state as a whole.