ABSTRACT

Age is a key variable in migration research and studies from a range of countries show a high degree of regularity in age-related variations in migration rates (Rogers 1988; Serow 1992). Migration rates are typically low in older adult age groups, although in a number of countries there is an identifiable peak around ‘retirement age’ (increasingly difficult to pinpoint through information on age alone) and a further increase in later old age (Rogers and Watkins 1987; Warnes 1983; Grundy 1987a; Bean et al. 1994; Warnes 1996). In England and Wales, rates of migration among very old people in their nineties are higher than in any other five-year age group in the population aged 55 years and over (Grundy 1987a). This pattern clearly represents the outcome of different types of events and motivations for moving. Younger ‘retirement’ migrants, no longer constrained locationally by the demands of paid work or the needs of children still at home, are regarded as moving for ‘amenity’ or ‘lifestyle’ reasons to increase their supply of what Graves and Linneman (1979) term ‘non-traded’ goods. These include features such as an attractive environment. A wish to release capital and reduce housing costs may also be an important motivation, particularly in prompting migration from metropolitan areas with high property prices (Clark and Davies 1990; Steinnes and Hogan 1992; Cribier and Kych 1992; Stuart 1987). Such migrants, predominantly couples, tend to be better educated, economically advantaged and in better health than non-migrants of the same age band (Grundy 1987a; Speare and Meyer 1988; Morrison 1990; Rogers, Watkins and Woodward 1990; Bean et al. 1994). The moves made by these migrants are often location-specific, with destinations chosen on the grounds of climate, proximity to the coast or mountains, or other environmental grounds (Warnes and Law 1982; Drysdale 1991).