The Senior Sector: Growth Industry for Rural Places?

"I've been pounding legislators' doors trying to suggest that's exactly what we should be doing," said Richard Rathge, professor of sociology at North Dakota State University and director of the North Dakota State Data Center. "Seniors could be the growth industry for our state."

This strategy builds on a process that has been going on for decades for economic reasons. Young adults leave rural for urban areas, where job opportunities are more plentiful. In relative terms, that increases the proportion of people ages 65 and older, explained Rathge.

Migration of older people, albeit complex, is also part of the process. The number of older people who migrate, compared with the number of young adults, is small. Retirees who do relocate tend to be in good health, to have healthy incomes, and to head for Sunbelt destinations such as Florida, New Mexico, and Arizona. But when they lose a spouse or health or mobility — usually when they reach their upper 70s — they return to their home base for care from relatives. The result is net in-migration of older people in most of the Great Plains, according to Rathge.

Read more on the Population Research Bureau website.