One obvious effect of migration is on age distribution. Far more dramatic is the effect of migration on the mix of newcomers and natives, which presumably influences the rate at which local institutions and attitudes change. In Pennsylvania, four out of five residents are natives of the state, but in Nevada, the proportion is one out of five. Migration also influences social policy attitudes. Southern whites who moved to the North in the 1980s and early 1990s tended, as a group, to adopt somewhat more liberal attitudes to such policies as busing and federal spending, whereas Northern whites who moved to the South tended to become somewhat more conservative.
Migration seems to have had little effect on regional differences in church membership.
Apparently, migrants tend to conform to the religious climate of their new home. There is an old theory that migration, because it usually loosens the bonds of family and community, leads to an increase in suicide, divorce and crime. Continuing a long-apparent trend, the central counties of metropolitan areas had a net loss of migrants, while suburban counties had a net gain. Nonmetropolitan counties also had a net gain but far less than that of the suburbs. Movers from abroad concentrated in the bigger counties, with 41 percent going to Los Angeles, Chicago and the five counties of New York City.