Benjamin C. Bolender

Beliefs about Aging: Implications for Future Educational Programming

The specific aim of this research study was to gain knowledge regarding beliefs about aging, in order to develop future, priority, educational, and aging-related opportunities in Kansas. The study included six focus groups with a self-selected sample of Kansans born during the years 1946–1964 (N = 39). The main themes that surfaced included the following: health is fundamental, communities and families provide assistance, personal experiences shape perceptions, and American society creates expectations. Educational programs that were indicated as priority areas for future development and implementation are discussed.

The Formation and Development of Rural Retirement Destinations

According to the 2000 Census, 277 nonmetropolitan counties had 15 percent or higher population growth at ages 60 and older due to net in-migration during the decade of the 1990s, and hence were classified as rural retirement destinations (RRDs).1 As will be documented later in this chapter, some of these counties have been continuously categorized as rural retirement destinations since 1979, when the practice of identifying such areas was initiated by USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS), while other counties moved into the category in 1989 or in 2004 when subsequent reclassifications occurred.2 While considerable research has focused on the demographic and economic impacts of retirement migration, virtually no research has considered why some counties become retirement destinations, why some lose this status, and why some persist in attracting older in-migrants over multiple decades. Accordingly, this chapter focuses on these questions. Understanding this process is important because retirement destination status has been closely associated with nonmetropolitan population growth over the past three decades. In fact, retirement destinations are one of the only types of rural places to have experienced continuous population growth and net in-migration during this period. It is thought that population growth among rural retirement destinations is associated with certain types of environmental amenities that attract older in-movers, but as we will show in Chapter 4, attractive amenities are only one reason that older migrants give to explain their residential choices. Hence, retirement destinations are not simply places with favorable weather and attractive environmental amenities. Research in this chapter attempts to identify other county attributes that result in relatively high in-migration to rural places by older-aged people.

Retirement Migration to Unconventional Places

Conventional research on retirement migration often focuses on natural amenities and recreation opportunities as main drivers. However, other kinds of factors can be shown to attract older people. This chapter aims to describe and explore “unconventional retirement destinations” (URDs) that do not fit into the usual theoretical and methodological mold, with special interest in the influence of economic, health, and socio-cultural factors. Using statistical analysis, 108 counties in the nonmetropolitan United States were identified as having a higher rate of net in-migration at older ages than would be predicted by established ideas of the causal processes involved. Our descriptive analysis compares unconventional destinations with their more conventional counterparts in terms of general demographic and socio-economic characteristics. Then, our focus narrows to primary data collection in eight URD case study sites in an attempt to draw a meaningful picture of where, how, and why unconventional retirement destinations are formed. Finally, we present a base typology of URD counties along with implications for how these interact with local community planning. Our goal is for this typology to begin to inform both future research and policy decisions.