Affiliations: [a] Center for Business Research, Arizona State
University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-4406, USA | [b] Department of Economics, University of Minnesota,
Duluth, USA
Note: [1] An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meetings of the
Gerontological Society of America, New Orleans, November, 1993.
Note: [2] This research was supported, in part, by a grant from the University of
Minnesota All-University Council on Aging. The able computational assistance
of Michael Pletan is gratefully acknowledged. Nonetheless, the authors
remain solely responsible for all statements made in this paper.
Abstract: Using comparable definitions and two statewide surveys, it is estimated that the
elderly seasonal migration rate is higher in Arizona during the summer (10.1%)
than it is in Minnesota during the winter (9.2%). More attention is given to the
Arizona seasonal migrants, or Sunbirds, since they have not been studied as much
as Snowbirds. While Sunbirds are similar in many ways to Snowbirds, they tend to
be older. This age difference, along with a tendency for both types of seasonal
migrants to have been recent permanent migrants, suggests that permanent
migration may be a precursor to seasonal migration.
