Population mobility

Population mobility, geographic mobility or more simply mobility is a statistic that measures migration within a population. It is most commonly used in demography and human geography, it may also be used to describe the movement of animals between populations.

The United States Census Bureau defines mobility status on the basis of a comparison between the place of residence of each individual to the time of the March survey and the place of residence 1 year earlier. Non-movers are all people who were living in the same house at the end of the migration period and the beginning of the migration period. Movers are all people who were living in a different house at the end of the period rather than at the beginning. Movers are further classified as to whether they were living in the same or different county, state, region, or were movers from abroad. Movers are also categorized by whether they moved within or between central cities, suburbs, and non-metropolitan areas of the United States.

Population turnover is a related statistic that measures the movement measures gross moves in relation to the size of the population, for example movement of residents into and out of a geographic location between census counts.

Population mobility has implications for the spread of infectious diseases like AIDS.