# Migration flow at county level

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/migration-flow-at-county-level/817>\
**Category:** USA\
**Created:** [March 6, 2015, 3:49pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/migration-flow-at-county-level/817 "2015-03-06T15:49:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![stefimarcassa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@stefimarcassa](https://forum.ipums.org/u/stefimarcassa)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 3:49pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/migration-flow-at-county-level/817/1 "2015-03-06T15:49:00Z")

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I would like to compute the migration flow from a county to another starting from 1850.

Is there any way I can do it?

Thanks.

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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:** [March 6, 2015, 10:17pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/migration-flow-at-county-level/817/2 "2015-03-06T22:17:00Z")

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It is possible in various samples from 1940 onward to identify either county migration status in the last year ([MIGRATE1](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/MIGRATE1#description_section)) or in the last five years ([MIGRATE5](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/MIGRATE5#description_section)); however, it is not possible to identify the county from which they came. In fact, starting in 1950, it is oftentimes not possible to identify a persons’ current county in the public-use data. There are [migration variables](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/group?id=mig) available that identify previous residence for non-county geographies.

As for Census data prior to 1940, there is not much available on short-term migration flows. You could compare persons’ current [county](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/COUNTY#description_section) of residence to [birthplace](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/BPL#codes_section), but birthplace is only available at the state level. It is possible to identify county-level migration flows for the year 1880 by utilizing the [linked samples](https://usa.ipums.org/usa/linked_data_samples.shtml). Since the 1870-1880 linked sample has County values for anyone present in both the 1870 and 1880 data, you could identify the ten-year county-to-county migration flow. You could even do the same for the years 1880 and 1900 to calculate the twenty-year migration flow for 1900.

Sorry that I don’t have better news, but I hope this helps.