Older Residents and Their Demographic Effect on Rural Communities

As an individual goes through life their needs change. Things and issues that were once thought as necessities become unneeded and former essential transform move into unimportance. It is this shift in daily requirements that can spur major transitions in a person's life. One particular transition that going from working full time to retirement. No longer is the hustle and bustle of going to work or raising kids. The suburbs may no longer be suitable perhaps due to wish to get away from urban. There is no need for a night life, so downtown living isn't likely to be occurring. Instead, a quieter lifestyle is typically going to occur.

This desire generally leads to the individual moving, or in academic circles migrating. Of course, with the aspiration to lead a quieter, less urban life the only choice for this kind of demographic is to move to a more rural area. In fact, this is a trend that has become increasingly popular and it has been noticed. The result is an increased population in older demographics and an uneven distribution when looked along side younger residents.

These elderly aged migrants do come along with many benefits. They bring with them a certain amount of disposable income, usually a retirement fund of some sort and perhaps some part time work. This can be very useful for a financially strapped county that is on the wrong side of an economic flow imbalance. Surprisingly, when coming into a community older folks don't cause immediate strain the few amenity resources a rural county might have. In fact, a study found that most migrants are in good or excellent upon moving. It sounds counterintuitive but it makes sense when you consider the difficulty moving would incur if in poor physical health. Most likely, a poorer condition would lead to the inability to migrate due to illness.

Of course, there can be problems due to older in-migration. First is their inability to foster additional economic growth outside of their set income. They bring no jobs or businesses for folks to spend money at and they don't see an increase in total income. In essence while they bring an initial boost, there is little economic growth from this age group.

Other problems tend to lean on the older demographic's future economic potential. The lack of child bearing ability is an important concern. This portion of the population is past this stage in life and their children are probably somewhere else and didn't migrate with them. This is a problem because in a community youth is used to supplant the old. In doing so the labor force can be maintained or grow to sustain the economy. However, because their children aren't migrating as well, the process is disrupted.

In addition there is a future amenity strain down the line. While folks may be of good health and in little need upon arriving, there is nothing limiting their potential for future need. Health generally degenerates with age and, with the exception of an outliner or a tragedy, this outcome will likely occur.