Chuck Longino brings a lifetime of research on retirement migration into his first-year seminar.
The golden years
Chuck Longino keeps track of retirees, wherever they go
Charles F. Longino, the Washington M. Wingate Professor of Sociology and director of the Reynolda Gerontology Program, joined the faculty in 1991 after 14 years at the University of Miami. He also holds a joint appointment in the Division of Public Health Sciences at the School of Medicine. A nationally recognized expert on retirement migration patterns, he is the author of Retirement Migration in America (1995, 2nd edition, 2006) and more than 200 journal articles and book chapters, and is often cited in newspaper and magazine articles. He is a past president of the Gerontological Society of America, the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education and the Southern Gerontological Society, and past editor of the Journal of Gerontology.
Time magazine ran an article this summer about “the decline of Florida” and mentioned, among other factors, that it was declining in popularity as a retirement destination. What was your reaction?
It's not really a new trend. First, fewer than five percent of the people over age 60 move across state lines every five years. Since 1960, about a fifth to a quarter of those moved to Florida. It was 26 percent in 1980. The decline actually started in 1990. It decreased to 24 percent in 1990 and 19 percent in 2000. But 19 percent is more than any other state by far. What has changed? For the first time in 2000 the actual number of retirees moving to Florida fell. Florida still ranks first in the number of retirees moving in, but the drumbeat of decline is having its effect.
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Why is retirement migration important to track?
State planners, housing planners and developers are always interested in the character of the population in their states. Political parties are interested in the kinds of voters moving in. Planners look at how the needs of the older population are changing because of the addition of migrants. Retirees who move are, on average, a little better off than those who haven't moved. Over $12 billion per year in income is transferred into Florida by older migrants.
How do retirees decide where to move?
In every survey, the number one answer is climate or natural beauty. The cost of living also ranks high as a motivating factor. Other factors include where family members and friends live and even where someone previously vacationed.
What patterns are there in retirement migration today?
There are two big patterns; first, into Florida from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois. The other, less well-known pattern is out of California to Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. The rising cost of housing is definitely having an effect on the migration out of California.
How about North Carolina?
Retirees are attracted to North Carolina because of its four seasons climate. North Carolina wasn't even in the top 10 destinations in the 1960s. Today, North Carolina captures about 4 percent of retirees who move, behind only Florida, Arizona, California and Texas. It seems counterintuitive that California is both one of the top states in out-migration and in-migration, but consider its size; although a lot of retiree do move there, California loses more retirees than it gains.
We tend to think of retirees moving once, when in fact your research has shown three types of moves, hasn't it?
The first has more to do with lifestyle, so you see movement into communities where there are amenities and fun things to do. Then as physical disabilities increase, the kids begin to say we really worry about you; move closer to us. The third type is to a health-care facility when disabilities overwhelm family caretakers.
How do you make your first-year seminar relevant for your students, when retirement is probably the furthest thing from their mind?
One thing we do is analyze their move to college using some of the same criteria I use for my research so they begin to see mobility in a broader perspective. I also have students interview their grandparents about their residential history, to see if it forms a “life course” pattern. The bulk of mobility is in the young age group; you move for an education, for work, for marriage. Then it declines and hits a long plateau, before rising during the retirement years.
How else have you brought gerontology into the undergraduate curriculum?
I've team-taught two alternating gerontology courses in the spring nearly every year. One is an interdisciplinary seminar on the science and social science of aging, taught with faculty members primarily in biology and health and exercise science; Dean Applegate from the medical school usually participates, too. The other is a seminar taught with colleagues from the humanities; we study images of aging found in Shakespeare, modern literature, film, music and visual art.
When the time comes, are you planning to retire to Florida?
Heavens no! Fourteen years in Florida is like a lifetime. We plan to stay here. We have a daughter in Winston-Salem and a son and a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in Greensboro.
