Most of these persons made local moves - 26 million moved from one residence to another within the same county. Nearly 8 million persons moved between counties within the same State and another nearly 7 million changed States. During that 1-year period, 1.3 million persons moved into the United States from abroad. While the small declines in the moving rates from one year to the next do not seem large enough to be very important, over time they add up to an important decline in annual moving rates. The annual rate of moving has gradually declined from a high of 20.2 percent in the 1-year period between March 1984 and March 1985 and is now similar to the rates found most years during the early 1980's.
Most movers stay in the same county.
Most of the fluctuation in the annual moving rate reflects changes in the rate of local moving, while there is little change in the rates of longer distance moving. The average American moves 11.7 times in a lifetime. By age 4, an American can expect to have 10.8 moves remaining. At age 19, 9.2 moves can still be expected. But by age 44, only 3.1 moves remain.