Ruhestandsmigration und Reurbanisierung

Abstract

In the debate about recent trends in elderly migration in Germany a controversy arose about a possible change of patterns. With respect to former generations of retired persons many studies (in different countries) gave evidence of the fact that a change of residence in retirement in many instances was a ‘counterurbanisation’. On balance the elderly population left the central cities of agglomerations and went to the peripheral regions or more generally from urban to rural regions. At issue is now whether this pattern of retirement migration still exists or whether seniors nowadays move into the cities as well. In the media, in politics and in real estate business the suspected trend is often treated as a matter of fact, but empirical evidence is still rare. The study presented here investigates the suspected change towards reurbanisation in retirement migration with an analysis of aggregate data. The data base INKAR (indicators and maps of spacial and urban development) is used to examine developments from 1995 to 2012. The results show that there is indeed a structural transformation of elderly migration in Germany. The urban out-migration of seniors has decreased considerably and more and more big cities (especially in East Germany) turn up with a surplus of in-migration of older adults.

Keywords

• Retirement migration
• Reurbanisation
• Changing residence
• Elderly migration
• Geography of aging