Mississippi Today, in partnership with Rethink Mississippi (an initiative sponsored by the nonprofit Working Together Mississippi) and the University of Mississippi Center for Population Studies, has launched a project focused on the state’s brain drain crisis.
The core of the project is the state’s first-ever scientific study dedicated to understanding Mississippi’s brain drain crisis — and what ideas could help reverse it.
Researcher and policy analyst Jake McGraw of Rethink Mississippi compiled a list of frequently asked questions about the crisis, what the available data shows about it and potential solutions to it.
Click on any question below to read the answer. Click the “Jump to the top” link anywhere in the document to return to this list of questions.
What is brain drain?
Why is brain drain a problem?
How many people is Mississippi losing?
How does migration vary by education?
How does migration vary by age, race, and sex?
What parts of the state are losing the most people? What places are growing?
Where do Mississippians go? Where do newcomers move from?
Is the problem that too many Mississippians leave or too few people move in?
How does Mississippi compare to other states?
What is the economic cost of the brain drain?
What are the political implications?
What causes the brain drain? Is it mostly about jobs?
How much is rural depopulation to blame?
What role do Jackson’s struggles play?
Should we only care about losing college graduates?
Does the departure of out-of-state college students add to the brain drain?
What is the role of foreign immigration?
Where are the bright spots?
Where does all of this data come from?
What can we do to stop the brain drain?
Do you have questions that weren’t included?
What is brain drain?
Brain drain refers to the departure of educated or skilled workers from an area, often in pursuit of higher-paying jobs or better living conditions. It is a pithy term for what economists call human capital flight. Brain drain can be measured according to gross brain drain, the share of educated residents born in the state who leave, and net brain drain, the relative outflow and inflow of educated residents. Unless otherwise specified, we will use the term brain drain to refer to net brain drain, which is the more important metric for the state’s economy and well-being.
Brain drain also frequently shows up in connection with two related concepts: net outmigration and population loss.
Net outmigration occurs when the total number of people leaving an area exceeds the number of people moving in. Net migration includes both domestic migration, when native-born Americans move within the U.S., and international migration, when people move from and to foreign countries. In practice, places with net outmigration typically also suffer from a brain drain, because people with higher education tend to be more mobile than people without college degrees.
Population loss is a decline in the total number of residents living in an area. Population change is calculated by a simple formula: net migration + natural change (births minus deaths.) A place experiencing net outmigration can still sustain a growing population if its birth rate is high enough to offset its deaths and departures. However, state and national birth rates have been sliding downward for decades, so population growth increasingly depends on positive net migration.
Why is brain drain a problem?
Brain drain is a vicious cycle that slows a place’s economy, shrinks its tax base, and frays its social fabric. When an area’s workforce and customer base shrinks, existing businesses lose talent and revenue, and new businesses do not open. Infrastructure and public services deteriorate as fewer — and less affluent — taxpayers shoulder the cost of maintaining them. Vacant houses and storefronts blight once-vibrant neighborhoods, inviting crime and lowering property values. Schools close or consolidate, and religious congregations and civic organizations die out. Each wave of departures leaves less reason for others to stay, perpetuating the downward spiral.
Brain drain widens regional, socioeconomic, and political divides. Americans have the freedom to move anywhere in the country, and many “vote with their feet” by leaving places that offer less opportunity, fewer amenities and worse quality of life than they can find elsewhere. But even though all Americans are free to move, moving is not free. High costs and uncertain job prospects often lock poorer, less educated and older residents in struggling places. The people most likely to leave are wealthier, more educated and younger. Brain drain widens these disparities: the people who can leave are often rewarded with higher salaries and upward mobility, while people who are stuck in declining areas struggle to hang on. It also amplifies the inequality between regions. Areas with economic and social advantages pull talent and resources away from places like Mississippi that are, literally, left behind. The gap between them is increasingly filled with political polarization and cultural resentment.
Brain drain is a subsidy paid to other states. Mississippi taxpayers invest approximately $170,000 in the education of a child who passes through the state’s K-12 and public university system. When a graduate leaves to take a job elsewhere, the return on that investment is reaped by their new state. Mississippi imports far fewer graduates from other states than it exports. As a result, the taxpayers of the poorest state in America are subsidizing the economies and education systems of wealthier states, while Mississippi is left with fewer resources to invest in its communities and its next generation.
How many people is Mississippi losing?
From 2010 to 2024, 80,000 more residents left the state than moved in, according to Census Bureau estimates. Put together, the net loss is greater than the population of Gulfport, the state’s second-largest city. Mississippi had the sixth-worst net migration rate in the country during that time.
Net outmigration accelerated from 2010 to 2020, and it overtook the natural growth of the population starting in 2014. However, the Covid-19 pandemic put the brakes on the exodus. In the three years prior to 2020, Mississippi lost an average of 12,000 movers per year. In the three years from 2022 to 2024, 5,000 more people moved into Mississippi than moved away — the first period of inbound migration since the 1990s. Domestic movers still left Mississippi on balance, but their losses were offset by an increase in foreign immigration.
Despite the uptick in net migration, Mississippi’s total population has fallen faster since the pandemic. The state’s birth rate has declined in line with national trends, while deaths from Covid and other causes have spiked since 2020. In the past four years, 16,000 more Mississippians have died than been born.
As a result, Mississippi’s 2024 population stood at 2,943,045 — down nearly 45,000 from its peak in 2014. The state ranks 49th in population change during the past decade, above only West Virginia. Mississippi now has almost 27,000 fewer residents than it did in the 2010 Census.
How does migration vary by education?
As we laid out before, there are two ways to define brain drain: gross brain drain, which compares the education levels of leavers and stayers, and net brain drain, which compares the education levels of leavers and newcomers. Of the two, net brain drain is the more important metric, but gross brain drain is the one we feel more, since it is easier to notice the loss of someone who moved away than someone who never moved in.
Gross Brain Drain: Among Mississippi natives ages 22 to 50, almost half of all four-year graduates have left the state, compared to just 30% without a four-year degree. This includes graduates of community colleges, who stay home at the same rate as Mississippians without any postsecondary education.
Net Brain Drain: For every Mississippian without a four-year degree who moves away, a person of a similar educational level moves in. But only two university graduates arrive for every three from Mississippi who leave, resulting in a net loss of 57,000 four-year graduates currently living in other states.
How does migration vary by age, race, and sex?
Age: Every age group younger than 50 departs Mississippi in greater numbers than they arrive. Only when approaching retirement age are people more likely to move to Mississippi than leave. Losses are greatest in the years when people are beginning their careers. From 2010 to 2020, Mississippi lost one-tenth of its 25-to-34-year-old population – about 40,000 people – through net outmigration.
Race: Net migration among Black and white people follows a similar age pattern. However, Black people move away at higher rates in their 20s and 30s, but they are more likely to move back in their 70s. Mississippi’s population of other racial groups is too small to generate reliable estimates by age.
Sex: Both men and women move in line with the overall age pattern, but net outmigration is higher among men in their prime working years.
What parts of the state are losing the most people? What places are growing?
Nearly every part of the state is suffering from outmigration and brain drain. Between 2010 and 2020, 80% of the state’s 82 counties lost more people than they gained, including moves made inside the state and outside of it. Nationally, roughly half of counties were net exporters of population.
Most of Mississippi’s shrinking counties are shrinking rapidly, while most of its growing counties are growing slowly. From 2010 to 2020, more than half of Mississippi’s counties ranked in the bottom 20% nationally in net migration rate (net migrants as a share of population). Only five counties ranked in the top 20%.
There are patterns to which counties tend to lose or attract movers. Rural counties with low per capita income and low education rates lost the most people, while growth was concentrated in more affluent and educated places: suburban areas, university towns, and the Coast. Most of their growth came from people who moved from other parts of Mississippi — a brain drain within the state.
Where do Mississippians go? Where do newcomers move from?
When Mississippians leave, they typically relocate to large metropolitan areas that are within driving distance of home. According to address changes in IRS tax filings from 2012 to 2022, the top destinations for people leaving Mississippi are Houston, Dallas, Memphis, Atlanta and New Orleans. Newcomers are most likely to move to Mississippi from Memphis, New Orleans, Mobile, Baton Rouge and Atlanta.
In terms of net migration, Mississippi has added the most residents from Memphis, New Orleans, Mobile, Baton Rouge and Birmingham, while it has lost the most residents to Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta, Nashville and Orlando.
On a state level, Tennessee and Texas have drawn the most Mississippians, followed by Louisiana, Alabama and Florida. People who move to Mississippi tend to come from the same five states, in a slightly different order. Tennessee and Louisiana are the top two states of origin, followed by Texas, Alabama and Florida.
Even though the same states appear at the top of both lists, net migration varies widely by state. In general, Mississippi has a negative migration rate with states that are attracting newcomers from other parts of the country, while it has a positive migration rate with states that are losing residents to other parts of the country.
Texas added the most residents in exchange with Mississippi: 30,000 net movers between 2012 and 2022, which is triple the amount gained by Georgia, the number two state. Alabama, Florida and Tennessee round out the top five.
Mississippi netted the most residents from Louisiana, followed by Illinois, New York, California and Michigan – all states that, like Mississippi, have suffered from domestic net outmigration.
Is the problem that too many Mississippians leave or too few people move in?
Both, but, on balance, Mississippi does a worse job of attracting new residents than retaining current residents. For every 100 people alive today who were born in Mississippi, 36 now live in another state. Mississippi’s retention rate ranks in the middle nationally, 28th out of 50, but it is lowest in the Southeast, where people are less likely to leave their home state than in other regions.
However, for every 100 people born in Mississippi, only 24 people move in from other states. Another two move in from abroad. The in-migration rate ranks 46th in the country.
The population of people alive today who were born in Mississippi is 3.27 million, 10% larger than the state’s current population. Louisiana is the only other Southern state that is home to fewer people than were born in the state.
How does Mississippi compare to other states?
Mississippi ranks near the bottom nationally on brain drain, net migration and population change.
Net migration of four-year college graduates, ages 22 to 50: 47th
Total net migration since 2010: 45th
Population change since 2010: 48th
Louisiana is the only other state in the country to rank 45th or worse in all three categories. It makes sense that Mississippi would be in league with its neighbor to the southwest, but Louisiana also has unique economic and ecological challenges. Within the Southeastern region, Mississippi and Louisiana are extreme outliers.
The South is the country’s fastest-growing region, and every other state in the region has experienced net in-migration, brain gain and population growth. This includes Arkansas and Alabama, the two states that are most similar to Mississippi in economics, geography and history. Arkansas and Alabama are growing slowly by regional standards, but they sit around the midpoint in national rankings.
Arkansas and Alabama share many of the characteristics that are blamed for Mississippi’s brain drain. They are both poorer and less-educated than the Southern average, and they get labeled with many of the same negative stereotypes. They are the South’s most rural states behind Mississippi, and they do not have a major urban magnet like Dallas, Atlanta or Nashville. Yet Arkansas and Alabama have steadily grown their population by attracting and retaining residents, including university graduates. Since 2020, both have seen a surge of newcomers.
What is the economic cost of the brain drain?
Mississippi’s state economist published a study in 2022 that estimated that the brain drain of university graduates costs the state’s economy an average of $181 million per year. The model was based on retaining 1,200 more four-year graduates per year from 2023-2032 earning an average of $36,569. The study only calculated the additional economic benefits on a yearly basis, but we can extend it over the entire decade. If Mississippi retained 1,200 additional graduates per year for 10 years, and they all stayed in the state so that the state’s population with a bachelor’s degree increased by 12,000 by the end of the decade, then the state economy would grow by a total of $8 billion. (The impact grows exponentially, as previous cohorts continue to receive a paycheck, combined with the additional earnings from each year’s new influx of graduates.) An extra $8 billion would double Mississippi’s economic growth rate from the most recent decade. Those gains would also benefit workers without a degree: the state economist’s model predicts that the 1,200 additional four-year graduates would create almost 1,200 jobs elsewhere in the economy.
For a real-world example of how this could play out, compare Mississippi’s economy to Arkansas’ economy. In 2010, Mississippi and Arkansas were roughly equal in population and economic output. Mississippi had 45,000 more people and its GDP was $7 billion smaller. Between 2010 and 2024, Arkansas added 200,000 more residents than Mississippi and attracted 42,000 more four-year graduates. By the end of 2024, Arkansas’s economy was $31 billion larger than Mississippi’s — tripling Mississippi’s growth rate.
We can also think about the brain drain in terms of a loss on the investment made by taxpayers. State and local taxpayers contribute $8,494 per year toward the education of every public K-12 student and $14,662 for every public university student. These numbers change every year — they’ve risen about 25% since 2000 after accounting for inflation — but, as a crude estimate, a Mississippi student who completes 17 years of education in public schools and universities will receive about $170,000 in direct educational investment from their fellow Mississippians. This doesn’t include other indirect investments that benefit kids as well as adults: infrastructure, healthcare, police, firefighters, etc.
Mississippi residents pay an average of 9% of their annual income in state and local taxes, which means that a university graduate would need to earn almost $1.9 million in the state simply to repay the up-front investment. At the median income for university graduates, that would take 36 years. The state auditor’s office reported in 2022 that 40% of in-state graduates are not employed within the state within five years of finishing their degree. Since Mississippi only attracts two graduates from other states for every three it loses, a large portion of the state’s education funding turns into a subsidy to other states. As of 2023, the brain drain had cost Mississippi 57,000 four-year graduates between ages 22 to 50 who were born in the state. Collectively, they represent approximately $7 billion in educational expenditures after inflation.
What are the political implications?
Population loss most directly influences political representation through congressional reapportionment, which takes place after the U.S. Census every 10 years. In 2000, Mississippi’s congressional delegation shrunk from five to four because it had grown more slowly than other states. If current trends hold, Mississippi is likely to retain its fourth seat in 2030, but it will be in jeopardy by the time the 2040 Census comes around.
Population changes have influenced the redrawing of congressional maps within the state. The 2nd District, held by Democrat Bennie Thompson, had to be expanded after the 2020 Census because it lost 9% of its population in the preceding decade. The 2nd District now covers one-third of the state’s land area, and it will continue to grow geographically as long as the Delta region and Hinds County lose population. It’s likely that would mean adding more white voters to the state’s only majority-Black district, which could trigger a Voting Rights Act challenge. It could also alter the demographics of the majority-white 1st or 3rd Districts.
Similarly, the latest round of legislative redistricting has set off a fierce series of political and legal battles that is still ongoing. After Republican lawmakers approved new district maps on party-line votes, lawsuits brought on behalf of Black voters have forced 15 districts to be redrawn and their seats contested in special elections this year. In general, population changes in recent decades have shifted legislative power away from rural Mississippi and the city of Jackson and toward suburban areas and the Coast.
As for statewide elections, the effect of population changes exists as a hypothetical: would Mississippi elect different candidates if fewer people were leaving? Since 2010, net domestic outmigration has cost Mississippi at least 100,000 citizens who would have been of voting age by the state elections in 2023. It would not have swung the outcomes of many races, since most of Mississippi’s recent elections have been decided by wide margins. But it could have had an impact on the 2023 race for governor, for instance, which incumbent Republican Tate Reeves won over Democrat Brandon Presley by fewer than 27,000 votes. It’s impossible to say whether an extra 100,000 eligible voters would have swayed the final result, but it’s clear that the political ripple effects will only get larger if Mississippi continues to lose more people.
What causes the brain drain? Is it mostly about jobs?
People choose where to live based on a variety of individual factors, but every person of working age has to take job opportunities into account. Some people move to maximize their income, some move to get a job they love, and others move to a place they want to live where they can find a job that pays the bills.
There is no doubt that Mississippi’s economy is a major driver of the brain drain. Jobs often pay less than equivalent positions in other states, even after accounting for cost of living differences. According to the most recent American Community Survey data, Mississippians with bachelor’s degrees earn 23% less than the national average. Mississippians with graduate degrees earn 27% less than their counterparts. The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Mississippi’s cost of living is 13% cheaper than the national average.
People born in Mississippi who leave the state are rewarded with higher incomes at every level of education, but moving is especially lucrative for four-year graduates, who make almost $19,000 more than graduates who stay.
Mississippi also has fewer jobs available in fields that require a bachelor’s degree or specialized training. Roughly one-third of Mississippi natives in their 20s and 30s have completed a four-year degree, but Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce estimates that just 24% of jobs in Mississippi meet their qualifications, the lowest in the country. They project that share to stay level through 2031.
In-state job opportunities vary widely according to industry. In general, Mississippians who work in education and healthcare are most likely to stay, while those in STEM fields are the most likely to leave. However, Mississippi attracts fewer workers than it loses in each of the 15 most common professions for people born in the state. Losses are greatest in computer science and IT. For every 10 Mississippi natives currently working in tech, eight have left the state, and only three people have moved in from other places. As a result, the state’s tech workforce is less than half as large as it would have been without the brain drain.
How much is rural depopulation to blame?
The longstanding migration pattern has been for people to move from rural areas and small towns to big cities and suburban areas. This trend places Mississippi at a structural disadvantage, since Mississippi has the fourth-most rural population in the country and no large metropolitan area.
However, population density does not tell the whole story. Counties in Mississippi have underperformed counties of similar sizes across the board. Between 2010 and 2020, Mississippi counties under 25,000 people lost movers at more than twice the national average, and Mississippi counties between 25,000 and 50,000 people had a net outmigration rate of 6%, compared to flat migration nationally. Mississippi’s larger counties attracted more people than they lost, but at slower rates than peer counties outside the state.
What role do Jackson’s struggles play?
Most states have been able to offset their rural depopulation through the growth of their metropolitan areas. The Jackson region accounts for one-fifth of the state’s population and is Mississippi’s only metro area among the 100 largest in the country (it ranked 95th in 2024, with 606,000 residents). But in contrast with many fast-growing midsized Sunbelt cities, the Jackson area is losing population.
The city of Jackson has lost almost one-third of its population since 1980, with no sign of leveling off. From 2020 to 2024, Jackson lost more than 12,000 residents, the largest per capita drop among the 324 cities with more than 100,000 residents.
Historically, the surrounding suburbs have absorbed most of Jackson’s outmigration. Since 1980, their population has grown by nearly 80% and the metropolitan area has added 140,000 residents. However, in recent years, the growth in the suburbs has also tapered off. Over the past four years, 14,500 more people have left the Jackson metro area than moved in, the fifth-worst net migration rate of any metro area with at least 500,000 people. From July 2023 to June 2024, the most recent year available, the Jackson region ranked last in the country, losing twice times as many people per capita as any other major metropolitan area.
At the same time, people have flocked to similarly-sized regions in neighboring states. Huntsville, Chattanooga and Northwest Arkansas are growing rapidly by attracting newcomers, including many young professionals who have left expensive coastal cities after the pandemic.
Should we only care about losing college graduates?
Absolutely not. There is a tendency for people talking about the brain drain to say the state is losing its “best and brightest.” That’s demonstrably false. Many of Mississippi’s most talented and productive people did not have the interest or the opportunity to get a four-year college degree. And it is not desirable for Mississippi to only retain college grads while losing everyone else. Mississippi should create more opportunities for college graduates while also investing in career pathways that do not require a bachelor’s degree.
There are two reasons why four-year graduates deserve special attention. First, they are the only people who are leaving the state. About 70% of Mississippians with a high school diploma or associate’s degree stay in the state, but only about half of Mississippians with bachelor’s degrees stick around. Furthermore, Mississippi attracts a new resident with a high school or community college education for every one it loses, but only two four-year graduates move in for every three who leave. To solve the problem of outmigration and population loss, we must focus on where the problem lies.
Second, Mississippi taxpayers invest more in the education of university graduates than people who complete fewer years of schooling, and university graduates have higher average earnings when they enter the workforce. When they leave, it means that the people who received the most benefit from taxpayers, and who would contribute the most in state taxes, do not repay the investment that was made in them. Therefore, Mississippians who received less state funding and who tend to earn lower incomes are forced to shoulder more of the burden for the cost of education, infrastructure and public services.
Does the departure of out-of-state college students add to the brain drain?
It is a common fallacy that the brain drain is inflated by out-of-state students after they graduate from college in Mississippi. Currently, almost two in five students at Mississippi’s public universities came from outside the state. That’s 31,000 potential graduates who could leave the state within a few years.
However, they will not add to the state’s brain drain — they will reduce it. Even if the vast majority leave, the few who stay will have a positive effect on the state’s migration rate. Those who leave will have no net effect, since they were counted as newcomers when they arrived in the state.
It is theoretically possible that out-of-state graduates could distort a single year’s migration data if the number who left after graduation was larger than the number who arrived as freshmen. That is one reason most of the data presented above goes back at least 10 years or more. It is also why we have looked at where people were born, not just where they attended college, when quantifying the net loss of four-year graduates. Then there is the fact that the number of out-of-state students has grown almost every year since 2010. Brain drain is not statistical noise. It is a persistent trend.
What is the role of foreign immigration?
Foreign-born immigrants account for a tiny share of Mississippi’s overall population, but they have helped offset more than one-third of the outmigration of U.S.-born residents from the state since 2010. In that period, Mississippi has added approximately 41,000 new residents from overseas while losing 120,000 people born in the country. The state’s immigrant population has more than doubled over that time, yet Mississippi’s international immigration rate still ranks fourth-lowest in the country.
In total, 2.5% of Mississippi’s population — about 75,000 people — were born outside the U.S., the third-lowest share in the country. To put it in perspective, the city of Memphis (population 618,000) has roughly the same number of immigrants as the entire state of Mississippi. Arkansas’s foreign-born population is more than twice as large as Mississippi’s.
About half of Mississippi’s immigrants have come from Latin America, one-third from Asia, and one-tenth from Europe. Immigrants in Mississippi are more likely to be naturalized citizens than undocumented. They are also more likely to hold a four-year degree than the U.S.-born population, and they are twice as likely to start their own business.
However, the Trump Administration’s efforts to curtail immigration will likely reduce the number of people moving to Mississippi from other countries. That will send Mississippi’s population into faster decline and increase the importance of stopping Mississippi’s domestic brain drain.
Where are the bright spots?
Despite Mississippi’s challenges, there are reasons for optimism.
First, Mississippi has always been a wellspring of talent, and thanks to improvements in the state’s education system, it is being developed better than ever. In recent years, the “Mississippi Miracle” in elementary reading scores has garnered widespread attention from the press and policymakers. Less heralded, but equally important, are the strides made by the state’s institutions of higher learning. In 2020, Mississippi’s colleges and universities ranked 29th nationally in the number of bachelor’s degrees granted per capita — second-most in the South, behind only Alabama. Mississippi made the highest jump of any state in the country over the preceding decade: up 14 spots, from 43rd in 2010. This occurred despite a decline in the number of in-state students, a product of falling birth rates and high outmigration among young families. Mississippi’s universities have become magnets for out-of-state students by offering quality academic programs, vibrant campus life and affordable tuition. They have proven that people are willing to move to Mississippi, and businesses and policymakers should work hard to keep them.
Second, Mississippi is located in the middle of the fastest-growing region in the country, and it has many of the same assets as other Southern states that are drawing people from around the country. Chief among them is affordable housing. Mississippi has the second-lowest home prices in the country, according to Zillow. As Sunbelt metropolises like Atlanta and Austin have swelled with newcomers, their housing costs have surged. The pandemic accelerated migration away from expensive urban areas toward midsized cities, suburbs, and college towns where each dollar goes farther. As long as these trends continue, many communities in Mississippi have the opportunity to become attractive destinations for newcomers and returning expats.
A third advantage is the enduring attachment that Mississippians carry with them, even if they have lived outside the state longer than they lived in it. More than 1 million people born in Mississippi now live in other states, often within a few hours of home. If just 1% moved back each year, the state could reverse its net outmigration from the past decade. Many already entertain the prospect of moving back someday, as evidenced by the numbers who return in retirement. They could be drawn back earlier if they felt assured that they would not have to sacrifice their careers or quality of life to do so. If they see signs of progress, the desire to contribute to the state they love will be a powerful force calling them home.
Where does all of this data come from?
The Census Bureau provides the most comprehensive data on migration and population change. The Census Bureau publishes annual state and local population estimates, covering the 12 months from July 1 to June 30 each year. The most recent estimates are from 2024 (July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024). The state population changes include annual estimates of births, deaths, domestic migration, and international migration.
The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) collects data each year on a variety of social and economic characteristics from a representative sample of Americans. The ACS data provides detailed demographic information about people who have moved into and out of Mississippi.
The Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), housed at the University of Minnesota, allows for customized analysis of Census data to look at, for example, the age and education level of Mississippi natives who now live in another state. The University of Wisconsin’s Applied Population Laboratory also provides detailed county-level demographic breakouts of net migration patterns from 1950 to 2020.
The IRS releases statistics on tax filers who have moved between states each year. The tax data includes the age range and income earned in the year of the move. It does not rely on modeling, thus it is more precise than Census estimates (in fact, the Census estimates are partially based on IRS data), but it excludes people who did not file a tax return.
On the state level, Mississippi’s Longitudinal Data System connects administrative data from the state’s public K-12 schools, community colleges, and universities with employment data from the Mississippi Department of Economic Security. It does not track people who leave the state, but it does record the share of graduates who are employed in Mississippi.
There are other experimental sources that provide specialized data. For example, recent migration studies have cited LinkedIn profiles, U.S. Postal Service change-of-address requests, and credit reports. Moving companies and real estate firms also periodically publish data on customers that have made interstate moves. Analytics firms like Placer.AI sell proprietary tools that estimate migration using large consumer datasets, for example cell phone locations.
What can we do to stop the brain drain?
The available data give us a good indication of how many people are leaving, who they are, and where they are going. They do not, however, tell us why, or what we can do about it. To answer that question, we need your help.
Mississippi Today, the University of Mississippi’s Center for Population Studies, and Working Together Mississippi’s Rethink Mississippi initiative have partnered to create a survey to identify the most important things people look for when they choose where to live — whether that’s in Mississippi or somewhere else. The survey is open to anyone over 18, no matter where you’re from or where you live now. Once we know the factors that people consider when leaving or staying, we can develop strategies to help Mississippi compete with other places. If you have good ideas, the survey also gives you the opportunity to share them.
Once we have received enough responses, we will publish the results of the survey. They will inform Mississippi Today’s ongoing reporting on the causes, consequences and solutions to Mississippi’s brain drain crisis.
Do you have questions that weren’t included?
Tell us about them, and we’ll do our best to answer them. You may email Jake McGraw at j.mcgraw@workingtogetherms.org or Adam Ganucheau at adam@mississippitoday.org.
You can also take our survey, where you can share your personal story of leaving Mississippi or staying home.
