K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Young flee Delaware for better jobs, while retirees move here
Hidden behind the state’s steady population growth, economists and planners see an alarming trend. People 55 and over are moving into Delaware from more expensive states in waves large enough to make up for the exodus of young people leaving to seek better jobs and more exciting lifestyles.
In 1980, 30 percent of the population was between 18 and 34. Today that figure has dropped to 23 percent – even as the number of those 18-to-34 has grown exponentially compared to the overall population. These millennials are the largest such population in the last three decades, surpassed only by the “Baby Boomers.”
About 61 percent of people born in Delaware now live somewhere else. A century ago, 40 percent of native-born Delawareans moved out of state. Much of this migration has consistently been young, well-educated people seeking opportunity elsewhere.
Business and industry were the old model for economic growth. High tech jobs are the stars of today’s economy, and wherever there’s growth in that genre, millennials come with energy and ambition to expand urban redevelopment.