How Not To Pull Your Family Apart

Does 'Where' You Retire Matter?

When it comes to caregiver support, where the care recipient lives does matter. Why? Because if your family member decides to retire to a less expensive rural area to age-in-place, accessing welcome caregiver/care recipient support may be limited or hours away. And here’s an interesting fact, according to a USDA Economic Research Service 2022 report, "Rural America at a Glance," the historic patters of out-migration among young adults and in-migration of older adults to rural retirement destinations have accelerated the trend to retire to rural (non-metro) areas. As of 2021, for the first time, people 65 years and older made up over 20 percent of non-metro population. There is an ongoing shift in employment of racial and ethnic groups, especially evident in the emerging sectors of rural America. The health care and social assistance in rural areas ranks among them. Bottom line, the ‘shift’ of retirees to rural destinations can have a profound effect on family and friend caregivers/care recipients. A University of Minnesota study found that in many rural areas, there are 32.9 home health aides for every 1,000 65+ adults in rural areas, compared to 50.4 for every 1,000 older urban residents. Time to include this rural vs. urban trend in planning discussions about where to age-in-place.