Georgia is ‘sticky’ state, national study shows

That old sweet song that keeps Georgia on our minds?

It’s not only sweet, it’s sticky.

In a study on national migration patterns to be released Thursday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, Georgia ranks third among “sticky” states — or states that hold onto their native-born population. More than 69 percent of adults born in Georgia still live here, according to the survey, a stickiness ranking behind only North Carolina (71 percent) and Texas (75.8 percent).

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This might come as news to Atlantans, famous for being transplants from elsewhere, but much of Georgia is exurban and rural, where many people stay close to their roots.

“Stickiness tells you how attractive a state is to the people who were born there,” said D’Vera Cohn, a senior writer with the Pew Research Center.

Various qualities affect that number, she said, including job opportunities that allow natives to stay, and a strong sense of attachment to family and home.

Pew’s new study tried to explain why Americans seem to be settling down. According to U.S. Census numbers, only 13 percent of Americans changed residences between 2006 and 2007, the lowest percentage since the U.S. began keeping track in the 1940s.

The Pew Center surveyed 2,260 adults to find out why. They discovered that some states are “magnets” — they attract transplants from other states. In highly magnetic Nevada, only 13.6 percent of the adult population was born there; most came from elsewhere.

While Georgia is highly sticky, it’s only moderately magnetic: About 55 percent of the state’s U.S.-born population was born here. Why do the figures differ? Because Georgia has had a net influx of about 315,000 newcomers during 2005-2007. Plenty of people leave Georgia — 700,000 in that time period — but even more arrive, to the tune of more than a million transplants to the Peach State during that period.

“Georgia is a combination of urban, fast-growing areas, like Atlanta, and more stable, rural areas,” said Cohn.

By the way, the state sending the most transplants to Georgia? Florida, which sent 200,000 of its residents across the line during that time period.

Apparently having a winning football team is not enough.

More about the Pew study can be found at its Web site.