Center for Rural Community Revitalization and Development and/or Department of Agricultural Economics Survey Highlights
In 1996, the Center for Rural Community Revitalization and Development and/or Department of Agricultural Economics conducted a mail survey of "new residents" who had moved to Nebraska since 1990. Below, you will find highlights from their survey, as found at their website http://www.ianr.unl.edu/rural/
The
Center's contact information:
University of Nebraska
Lincoln, NE. 68583-0947
(402)-472-1772
Nebraska's new residents tend to be younger and better educated in comparison to Nebraska's existing population.
Nebraska's new residents who have located in the state's nonmetropolitan counties tend to be somewhat older, less likely to have a college degree, more likely to be married, and less likely to be in the labor force than new residents locating in metropolitan Nebraska.
Forty-one percent of Nebraska's new residents came from Nebraska's six adjoining states. An additional 19% were from California, Texas or Arizona.
Many of Nebraska's new residents had connections or ties of various types with Nebraska before moving to the state. For example, 41% had lived in Nebraska on some other occasion, 35% had parents and/or grandparents living in Nebraska, and an additional 23% had parents and/or grandparents who had previously lived in Nebraska.
Important "pull factors" that were at work in attracting the new residents to Nebraska were "to be close to relatives," "looking for a safer place to live," and "the quality of local grade/high schools."
The four most frequently cited reasons for leaving the previous state of residence were "fear of crime," "unsafe place to live," "high cost of living," and "urban congestion."
Nebraska's new residents seems to be generally pleased with their decision to move to Nebraska. Seventy percent (70%) said they would move to Nebraska if they had it to do over again; 90% said the existing local residents made them feel welcome when they arrived; and most found their Nebraska neighbors to be friendly, trusting, and supportive.
New residents locating in nonmetropolitan counties were much more dissatisfied than their metropolitan counterparts with public services and amenities, including their lack of availability. Those services most frequently singled out by nonmetropolitan respondents were public transportation, head start, mental health services, retail shopping, day care, nursing home care, senior centers, basic medical care, entertainment, streets and highways, local government, and housing.
Although many information-age technologies (e.g. touch tone phones, cable TV, and computers) were available in the respondents' homes, they were even more likely to be in the homes of metropolitan respondents.
Eight percent (8%) of the respondents and 6% of their spouses/partners considered themselves to be "telecommuters."