Potentially Leaving KC

More than three-quarters (77 percent) of area residents intend to stay in the Kansas City area for the next five years, a figure that is slightly but significantly up from 2018’s value of 72 percent. This is again strongly related to age, as 92 percent of older adults say they don't anticipate leaving in the next five years compared to 53 percent of those between 25 and 34 years of age. This might be expected, since older adults have generally lived in the region much longer than younger adults and younger adults tend to have more life changes that require a move. Yet the relationship between length of time living here and moving expectations breaks down for race. Despite the fact that blacks have highest proportion of residents who have lived here more than 20 years, the percentage of blacks saying they see themselves leaving Greater Kansas City is approximately double that of whites, 35 percent to 16 percent. The percentage of Latinos and Asians who see themselves leaving is even higher, at 42 percent. While the figure for blacks is down from 40 percent in 2018, the figure Latinos and Asians is one-and-a-half times their 2018 value of 28 percent, a difference that is both substantial and statistically significant.