Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Report: Nearly Half Of All Adults In NC Born Outside The State

An analyisis by the Carolina Population Center finds that 49 percent of adults in North Carolina were born outside the state.
Carolina Population Center

Nearly half of all adults in North Carolina were born outside the state, according to an analysis by the Carolina Population Center.Work, education and retirement opportunities are drawing people from many other states and countries, and they're relocating primarily to large urban centers and military bases, according to Demographer Rebecca Tippett.

"Many individuals who are coming here may have very different expectations for how local governments work, for how state policies should be run, that are going to reflect kind of where they're coming from and what they grew up with,” Tippett said.

Many of these people are young adults who settle down and have kids here, and those kids are considered North Carolina natives, Tippett added.

In all, the report found that 49 percent of adults were born in a different state or country. Tippett said the influx of transplants has skyrocketed since the 1950s, when only 10 percent of North Carolinians were born elsewhere.

"There is kind of the joke, 'does Cary really stand for Containment Area for Relocated Yankees?' And there's definitely some truth to that,” she said.

Tippett said a city like Cary has increasingly also relocated Asian – Indian and Chinese – immigrants. In retiree communities in Moore and Brunswick Counties, and portions of the Western mountains, there have also been very high proportions of individuals moving from out of state. And in the state's military bases in Cumberland and Onslow Counties, there has been a large flow of people moving in and out, as they kind of do their duty to the country.

Overall, Tippett said the largest share of people moving in come from Florida, New York and Mexico.

"That proportion of non-native varies widely across the state," she said. "The more you try to get into specific implications, the harder it is to say something kind of universal about what this means for North Carolina, other than that it's an indicator that we continue to be an attractive place for people to move here from other states and countries."

Rebecca Martinez produces podcasts at WUNC. She’s been at the station since 2013, when she produced Morning Edition and reported for newscasts and radio features. Rebecca also serves on WUNC’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accountability (IDEA) Committee.
More Stories