Gary Manson

U.S. Intercounty Migration in the 1990s: People and Income Move Down the Urban Hierarchy

Internal migration within the United States continues to transform both the magnitude and composition of population at all geographic scales. During 1994 - 1995, the majority of counties gained both people and income, largely as a consequence of net outmigration by higher income migrants from the nations most populous cities. Regionally, net gainers of both people and income included counties in the West and South as well as other areas renowned for environmental amenities. Spatially, net migration flowed down the urban hierarchy from large central cities to adjacent suburbs which, in turn, exported migrants to exurban areas. Large cities tended to exchange migrants with nearby counties as well as other large cities. Migration patterns such as these are contributing to spatial deconcentration and economic disparity.

The geography of nonemployment income

Abstract Income from sources not related to current employment accounted for 31.6% of total personal income in the United States during 1986. Areas where non-employment income makes up a disproportionally large share of personal income include amenity-laden retirement regions such as peninsular Florida and the Texas hill country; regions where farmland leasing is common, such as the Great Plains; and such places as Appalachia where low income occasions various forms of income subsidies. The variables most strongly associated with concentrations of nonemployment income are the percentage of older population, per capita income and percent rural farm population. Results have both theoretical and practical implications for economic base studies and migration.

Gains and losses of migrants and income through intercounty migration in the U.S., 1992–1993

Abstract Migration alters both the origin and destination of migrants in a variety of ways. This study uses data recently made available by the Internal Revenue Service to document gains and losses of both persons and income accruing to counties in the United States as a result of internal migration between 1992 and 1993. The degree to which migration alters the size of a countys population as well as the amount of income received in that county is assessed by means of effectiveness rates which are ratios of net flows to total flows. The majority of counties, especially those in the South and West gained both migrants and income during the period; losses were confined largely to the Northeast, Great Plains and California. Counties at the edges of large metropolitan areas gained income even more rapidly than people; counties containing large central cities lost income even faster than they lost migrants. Amenity-laden recreational and retirement counties were also among those who gained both people and income via migration. Overall, these results indicate an exacerbation of demographic and economic differences between regions as well as within metropolitan areas.

Classroom Questioning for Geography Teachers

Abstract Questioning is an important teaching skill. Teachers should be able to ask ‘thinking’ questions as well as ‘memory’ questions and they should be able to ask questions about ideas as well as facts. To assist teachers with development of their questioning skills, two dimensions of a question — the intellectual processes involved in answering it and the form of knowledge constituting the content — are reviewed. The dimensions are then combined into a matrix illustrating thirteen types of cognitive questions.