Between March 1999 and March 2000, 43.4 million Americans moved. Fifty-six percent of these moves were within the same county, twenty percent were between counties but in the same state, and nineteen percent were moves to a different state. Four percent were from abroad.

These percentages are from a U.S. Census Bureau report tided "Geographical Mobility." OK, so we know how many people moved. But why did they move?

"Why People Move: Exploring the March 2000 Current Population Survey," begins to answer that question. Until recently there has been very little data on individual reasons for moving. Therefore, in 1998, the Census Bureau added a question on "main reasons for moving."

There were four categories from which to select your main reason for moving: 1) Family-related reasons 2) Employment-related reasons 3) Housing-related reasons 4) Other reasons. Within each category, there were several more detailed reasons. They were specific enough to address the goal of finding information about individual decisions. Bur these categories also had to be broad enough to do what a census needs to do: find the areas of commonality.

Last summer, during the last few days of my husband's and my cross-country road trip, I conducted a survey of my own, asking the same question: Why do people move? But I was looking for answers that were, I suppose, the opposite of consensus. I was looking for unique stories that showed reasons that were uncommon. I wanted to hear that people moved because they needed to explore, to do something new, to greet the unknown.

My interest was a personal one: I was in the midst of moving from the East Coast to the West Coast. The closer I got to the Pacific Ocean, the more aware I became that I was on the biggest one-way trip of my life. The last time I made a permanent, long distance move (other than college) was when I was eight years old. I was hungry for insights.

I conducted this unscientific, unintentional survey in a place that's too small to make a dent on a census report: Torrey, Utah. The population of the town itself is 120, with about the same number living in the surrounding area. Torrey is in south central Utah, eight miles from Capitol Reef National Park. The first person I "interviewed" was a waiter at the Rim Rock Restaurant, that was written up in the New York Times last February. (This is a town that, during its popular season, has a larger population of tourists than residents.)

This young man was from Boston. He had gone to Tufts University, and then moved to New York City. He hated it there, visited his sister in Utah, and decided to move. If he filled out the census, his reason for moving might have been family; I'm not sure where his bigger reason would fit. He moved to the area because he wanted to spend his time physically connected to nature. Because the cost of living is so low, he is able to work less and hike more.

The restaurant is located on the grounds of the Rim Rock Inn, run by a man who moved from the San Francisco area. His main reason on the census would be family or work: many of his relatives live in Utah, and his dad owns the inn. His dad moved to Torrey after retiring from his printing business. He closed up shop when desktop publishing entered the scene, and he began buying old printing presses. The father and son use the presses now for small-edition books, cards and the stationery for the inn. (How often do you see letterpress pads of paper in your motel room?) They plan to open a printing museum next to the inn.

The son spoke of the joy of living in a place that was uncongested, quiet and remote. However, he also revealed his ambitions for the town to increase its popularity to tourists, and acknowledged the dilemma of wanting and not wanting development.

I met a gallery owner who moved from Seattle with her husband. Her gallery, which she rents with two other people, breaks even. Not hard, she says, with an all-inclusive rent that's under $350 a month. She and her husband can afford a ranch with enough acreage to have horses.

While these are not my reasons for moving, I rake comfort in the fact that people make huge changes in their lives for reasons that are personally daring and entrepreneurial. The big reasons that the census shows—jobs, family, housing—are very real and probably are the main reasons why people move. But once they move, do those reasons change?

My interest in knowing why people move has not diminished, in fact it has grown. I am especially curious about people in the visual arts. Do we move for reasons that are different from other professions? How much does our work and love of things visual affect where we want, and need, to live?

^{© 2004 W. Richmond}

Editor's note: To see the report and percentage findings, go to www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/migrate.html