The 'Young and Restless' Choosing to Live in Cities

Claire Cain Miller shares news of a new report about the choices of Millennials: "When young college graduates decide where to move, they are not just looking at the usual suspects, like New York, Washington and San Francisco. Other cities are increasing their share of these valuable residents at an even higher rate and have reached a high overall percentage, led by Denver, San Diego, Nashville, Salt Lake City and Portland, Ore., according to a report published Monday by City Observatory, a new think tank."

Also among the key findings of the report, as described by Miller: "as young people continue to spurn the suburbs for urban living, more of them are moving to the very heart of cities — even in economically troubled places like Buffalo and Cleveland. The number of college-educated people age 25 to 34 living within three miles of city centers has surged, up 37 percent since 2000, even as the total population of these neighborhoods has slightly shrunk."

The article also includes a break down of the cities attracting the most Millennials as well as a mention for cities on the other side of coin, like Atlanta.

In the case of Atlanta, the ATL Urbanist blog was one of those to pick up on Miller's story, finding a silver lining in lessons from intown. Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Jay Bookman also follows up on the report with a less-than-complimentary analysis of the city's failure to attract young residents over the past decade.

Jim Russell responds to the article as an example of how population numbers don't tell the whole story of demography. Here's Russell's reaction to the implications of the article: "The parts of the article about where young and college-educated adults are 'headed' puts demographically challenged Pittsburgh in a flattering light. I put 'headed' in scare quotes in reference to the methodology for the study generating the publicity. From the data, we can’t be sure where young college graduates are choosing to live. We do know where the population of young college graduates is growing and how fast it is growing (2000-12). I would be careful about inferring migration from such numbers. I’d be careful about over-interpreting the population change."