# Is is possible to examine migration patterns by county level or smaller?

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/is-is-possible-to-examine-migration-patterns-by-county-level-or-smaller/918>\
**Category:** USA\
**Created:** [June 10, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/is-is-possible-to-examine-migration-patterns-by-county-level-or-smaller/918 "2015-06-10T18:24:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![brianachang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@brianachang](https://forum.ipums.org/u/brianachang)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/is-is-possible-to-examine-migration-patterns-by-county-level-or-smaller/918/1 "2015-06-10T18:24:00Z")

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This NY Times article piqued my interest:

[http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/20…](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/upshot/where-people-in-each-state-were-born.html?action=click&contentCollection=The%20Upshot&region=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&configSection=article&isLoggedIn=false&moduleDetail=undefined&pgtype=Multimedia&abt=0002&abg=0#Pennsylvania)

In it they explore migration patterns by state.

I am interested in migration patterns in to and out of one particularly county/township in my state. Is is possibly to explore migration patterns for this one county/township?

Thank you for any help.

Briana

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**Author:** ![Tim\_Moreland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f1d935/32.png) [@Tim\_Moreland](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Tim_Moreland)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 7:56pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/is-is-possible-to-examine-migration-patterns-by-county-level-or-smaller/918/2 "2015-06-11T19:56:00Z")

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Unfortunately, state is the lowest level of detail collected by the Census for place of birth ([BPL](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/BPL#description_section)). If it is possible to identify the particular county in which you are interested (see Excel spreadsheet of identifiable counties [here](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/COUNTY#description_section)), then you could still estimate the in-migration from other states to this county. However, you would not be able to estimate in-migration from other areas in the same state to this county or any out-migration from this county.

While not relevant to birthplace-based migration, IPUMS-USA does offer [migration variables](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/group?id=mig) that report a respondent’s residence 1 year ago. These variables are available at the [PUMA](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/PUMA#description_section) level, which is smaller than the state but might not be an exact match to your county of interest. Please refer to these previous answers for more background on the migration variables: [here](https://forum.ipums.org/t/i-need-data-for-1-year-state-to-state-migration-flows-for-the-usa-where-do-i-find-it/639/1) and [here](https://forum.ipums.org/t/migration-flow-at-county-level/817/1).

Sorry that I could not deliver better news.