Question: How does the percentage of young people who have never lived anywhere but Long Island compare to other regions?

This seems to be poking at a much larger question of, “how unique are these trends or issues LI young adults are facing?”

We checked, and it does not look like there are other 1-to-1 datasets that are comparable.

This isn’t to say that other people, researchers and organizations are not studying migration patterns, but often the scope and scale differ as they attempt to find answers to different questions than we are.

The Census, for example, tracks county to county migration patterns. Using the Census Flows Mapper, you can look at Nassau and Suffolk County and see the estimated inbound and outbound migrations within the span of a few years.

However, this is not narrowed to a specific age group, and it does not answer if the people who are moving outbound are Long Island-born or otherwise.

Back in 2011, the Census also released a brief called the “Lifetime Mobility in the United States.”There is updated data on this available here, as recent as 2017, but it is state-level data and does not include an age filter either.

On Vox.com, “Those who stay, and those who leave” touches on this topic. It uses a diverse source of data to illustrate the overall trend that could be found in migration and, well, people who say and who leave – a fascinating article, but with a focus different than what our study was aimed at.

If any of our readers might know of a similar dataset, or of other organizations interested in exploring this further with us, please send our data journalist, Kai Teoh, an email.

It can be very cost prohibitive to do research and studies on smaller levels. Different regions have different challenges that local organizations tend to focus on, and larger studies tend to drill down only to the state level, as granularity is expensive when scaled. NextLI is unique in its position and role, as there are few metro areas with the combined philanthropic vision and structural institutions to support such an endeavor.