Attracting Retirees as a Community Development Option

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Abstract
This paper compares recent trends in population and employment growth in nonmetropolitan retirement counties with those in other types of nonmetropolitan counties. Nonmetropolitan retirement counties number 481 out of approximately 2,400 nonmetropolitan U.S. counties. Since 1980, nonmetropolitan retirement counties have accounted for over half of all nonmetropolitan population growth and they have grown at a rate over four times greater than that for the remaining nonmetropolitan counties. Post-1980 employment growth in nonmetropolitan retirement counties also far outstripped that for the remaining nonmetropolitan counties. Local government fiscal data indicate increased expenditures for services to meet the needs of growing elderly populations. Strategies for community development practitioners to use in assessing the effects of retirement migration as a local development option are discussed.