Pew: Rate of people moving into Philly increasing, rate of people leaving decreasing

“Pew Study Finds an Increase in People Moving Into Philadelphia, Outpacing the Rise in Departures”.

We still have a long way to go, but it is proof positive that Philadelphia’s long march towards being a great place to live and work is starting to get recognized.

Check out these upcoming events: Ignite Philly and TEDXPhilly.

Update: I’ve modified the headline of this post (previously: “Pew: More moving INTO Philly than leaving”) to better reflect the report’s findings. Terrific progress being made nevertheless. Go Philly!

One thought on “Pew: Rate of people moving into Philly increasing, rate of people leaving decreasing

  1. I’m just curious if you’d actually read the linked report that went along with the title of this entry?

    It’s only 10 pages long. And on the first page it has the following:

    “To be sure, more people still are leaving Philadelphia than are arriving; that has been the case in each of the 16 years for which data was analyzed (1993 to 2008). But the net outflow, as recorded by the IRS, has decreased substantially in recent years, from a peak of 20,284 in 1995 to 9,846 in 2008, the last year for which data was available.”

    This report if printed isn’t worth the paper wasted. It’s a fluff study to show a headline to prevent the bleeding that is the outflow of people from Philadelphia who can afford to relocate LEAVING. It’s something the tourism department can tout in catchy slogans and bumper stickers. If you went through the 10 page report, you’d see that the numbers are framed, data is incomplete and missing, and there are quite a few other factors that render any calculations worthless in the regard to a total numbers. If someone produced this report and handed it in as my employee and tried to palm it off as half-way scientific and accurate, I’d fire them on the spot.

    If you zoom down to the IRS note on page 10 which is the basis they are using as the prime factor in their white-wash, the IRS stated the following:

    ———

    “the limitations of the data

    The IRS migration data, which is reported down to the county level, has its limitations. Since it is based on tax returns, it does not include any individual or family with too little income to be required to file a return. As a result, the movements of the poor, the elderly and students not listed on their parents’ returns are under-represented in the data.

    In addition, the statistics only include individuals or families who have filed federal tax returns under the same Social Security numbers in two consecutive years—and thus provided addresses for both years.

    This means that newly-arrived immigrants from other countries, regardless of income, do not show up until they have filed U.S. returns for two years. It means that some people who get divorced and start filing under their own Social Security numbers are missed as well. Also likely not to be counted are workers in their first year of employment and individuals returning to work after a break.5 Many undocumented immigrants likely go uncounted as well.

    IRS officials say they are unable to estimate how much of the population is left out of this data. It is clear that the percentage is not insignificant and that it varies from place to place, depending on the makeup of the local population.”

    ——-

    IRS data incomplete and not sufficient to make such calculations.

    The IRS has NEVER been the source of determining patterns with populations, the census has and always will be the prime location for queries. They can at least +/-, to give an idea of the total data captured. This report is weak and lacking. If someone hasn’t filed a Tax return, they don’t show up.

    If someone moved out of country and didn’t file they would still show up as being in Philadelphia. If someone didn’t file before the criteria dates used, and moved out of Philadelphia they wouldn’t show up on this report. The last thing I want to mention is the illegals that conveniently don’t show up in any way shape or form in this report; oh wait that’s undocumented immigrations, or is it accidental tourists?

    Then again, after reading the whole report and seeing who compiled this steaming pile and seeing that his last job was for the Philadelphia Inquirer I think I understand better.

    Have a great day!

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