How far do you live from where you were born?

Seattle

Seattle

Valued Senior Member
I just read some interesting statistics, here in the US, about where people end up living. It showed that 80 percent of people lived within 100 miles of where they were born and 60 percent lived in the same state in which they were born.

I knew the figures were pretty high but I didn't realize they were that high. Of course that still means that 20 percent live more than 100 miles from their birthplace. When you have moved far from home (in my case) you tend to be in bigger cities and it seems that most everyone that you meet is from somewhere else.

That 20 percent I'm sure are mainly sprinkled across a few large cities and that's why is seems that way. I realize that in other countries this may not be as applicable since, for example, there's only so far away you can move in the UK and still live in the UK.

I know that moving has more to do with education, job opportunities so that's why you have that break down. I know people who are highly educated that still live in the same small town that they grew up in and who rarely travel (even for fun) and others that have lived all over the world.

I've always been a little surprised when I went to a very small town (couple of hundred people) and many not only were born there but had rarely left even to go travel around that same state. When you live in a "town" that small there is literally nothing there.

To answer the thread question, I moved from one coast to the other. I'll also add, for anyone curious (IMO) the biggest cultural difference in the US is either the South vs everyone else or the weather and population density differences between the West and everywhere else.

I'd never live outside the West now.
 
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a little over 900 miles for me and a little over 1000 miles for my spouse
and
we're rural
(drawn by the university of iowa)
so perhaps not really rural
(our county does not vote like the rest of our state)
 
1425 miles (give or take a mile or two). Though I live in a city now, I was born rural, and originally moved to a rural area when we made the cross country move. My wife, however, is city born and we live less than 2 miles from the house she grew up in.
 
Seattle said:
I just read some interesting statistics, here in the US, about where people end up living. It showed that 80 percent of people lived within 100 miles of where they were born and 60 percent lived in the same state in which they were born.

I knew the figures were pretty high but I didn't realize they were that high. Of course that still means that 20 percent live more than 100 miles from their birthplace. When you have moved far from home (in my case) you tend to be in bigger cities and it seems that most everyone that you meet is from somewhere else.

That 20 percent I'm sure are mainly sprinkled across a few large cities and that's why is seems that way. I realize that in other countries this may not be as applicable since, for example, there's only so far away you can move in the UK and still live in the UK.

I know that moving has more to do with education, job opportunities so that's why you have that break down. I know people who are highly educated that still live in the same small town that they grew up in and who rarely travel (even for fun) and others that have lived all over the world.

I've always been a little surprised when I went to a very small town (couple of hundred people) and many not only were born there but had rarely left even to go travel around that same state. When you live in a "town" that small there is literally nothing there.

To answer the thread question, I moved from one coast to the other. I'll also add, for anyone curious (IMO) the biggest cultural difference in the US is either the South vs everyone else or the weather and population density differences between the West and everywhere else.

I'd never live outside the West now.
Click to expand...
400 miles. Edinburgh to London.

For my father it was 6,000miles (Canton/Gaungzhou to London) and for my mother 5000miles (Madras/Chennai to London). British Empire days.
 
I currently live around 900 km from where I was born. In terms of distances you can go while still remaining in the country, this is small fry for Australia. Roughly speaking, the distance from Australia's east coast to its west coast is approximately the same as for the United States.
Size-of-Australia-compared-to-USA-on-a-Map.jpg
 
About 30 miles at present, for reasons. Been much further (albeit still within the confines of dear ol' Blighty), but have since coincidentally returned reasonably close, nothing to do with it being where I was born, though.
 
James R said:
I currently live around 900 km from where I was born. In terms of distances you can go while still remaining in the country, this is small fry for Australia. Roughly speaking, the distance from Australia's east coast to its west coast is approximately the same as for the United States.
Size-of-Australia-compared-to-USA-on-a-Map.jpg
Click to expand...

I'd venture that, owing to the Mercator projection, the vast majority of Americans believe Australia to be roughly the size of Texas.

Anyway, I presently live about 600 miles from where I was born, which is about the closest I've lived since childhood.
 
My grandparents, by comparison, all died roughly 4000 mi from where they were born. That's "straight line"(geodesic) distance. Being as they were all born in the 1800's, the route they took was more like 5800 miles by land and sea.
 
About 150 miles from where I was born. But only a mile from where I lived from age 6 to 20.
 
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