Why This Urban Millennial Loves Her Small Town

For the fourth consecutive year, U.S. census figures have shown that thousands of Millennials and younger Gen Xers are leaving big cities. Since 2014 an average of about 30,000 residents between 25 and 39 have left big cities annually. Wall Street Journal’s Liz Farmer and her husband are among them.

According to a survey by the freelance marketplace Upwork Inc., people who freelance or have jobs they can take with them are more likely to move out of urban job centers to places that cater to their lifestyles. It’s one of the reasons places like Boise, Idaho, and Charlotte, N.C., are seeing faster population growth than most big cities. When we packed up and headed for farm country 70 miles outside Washington, my husband and I took our son, cat and jobs with us.

My husband and I left Washington, D.C., for the suburbs more than a decade ago because of affordability issues. Now I believe we’re in the next new trend of workers with mobile jobs: moving to a small town to improve our quality of life.

Farmer writes more about the trade offs of moving to a small town (less cultural diversity, good restaurants) and the benefits (more economic diversity, community).

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