AccelerateMS workforce ecosystems · ACS B07009 / B07409 · adults 25 and over

Mississippi Brain Drain Visualizer

Eight Mississippis. Is brain drain uniform across the state, or does it differ in magnitude and mechanism by region? The state average may describe no region.

Thomas Lockhart Garner

Window
Map view
Educational attainment
Who lives here
Migration
Brain drain and flows
About the study

Distance from the state figure

Net credentialed flow, interstate and intrastate

Net change in one year as a share of each region’s own base, split into movement with other states and movement with other Mississippi ecosystems. The diamond is the combined effect.

Interstate net, with other states Intrastate net, with other ecosystems Total net, combined effect

Attraction vs. retention: which mechanism each region has

Retention asks whether the people a region has stay: the gross interstate rate, the share of credentialed adults 25+ who leave for another state each year. Attraction asks whether others arrive to replace them: the replacement ratio, arrivals from other states per departure. Programs usually target one mechanism. Gottlieb (2011) calls retention programs “make” and attraction programs “buy.”

Policy implications

Mississippi’s labor ecosystems vary significantly in brain drain magnitude and mechanism. The statewide average may not fully represent any individual region.

Recommendations

  • Consider reporting both statewide and ecosystem-level brain drain and workforce migration data to better inform statewide and regional policymakers and stakeholders.
  • Consider the regional differences in magnitude and mechanism when designing any future policies addressing Mississippi brain drain.

Data and methods

U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, county level. B07009 (geographical mobility by educational attainment, current residence) gives in-migration; B07409 (residence one year ago) gives out-migration. Five-year estimates of the annual average in three non-overlapping windows: 2010–14, 2015–19, 2020–24. Adults 25 and over.

Both tables were pulled for all 82 counties across the three windows, summed to the eight AccelerateMS ecosystems defined in 2022 Mississippi: The Road Ahead, and the five attainment categories grouped as credentialed (bachelor’s, graduate or professional) and non-credentialed (less than high school, high school graduate, some college or associate’s).

Figures are annual averages within each five-year window. Rates divide a group’s movers by that group’s own resident population, so credentialed, non-credentialed and all-adult rates can be read side by side.

Limitations

  • Ages 25 and over only. ACS only includes ages 25+ for educational attainment. Removes post-graduation move noise.
  • Foreign migration excluded. ACS only records arrivals. Excluded to avoid asymmetry.
  • Within-state movement is net only. Gross counts include moves within an ecosystem. Net flows cancel those out exactly.
  • Small counts in small ecosystems. Wide margins of error for small ecosystems.
  • Does not establish the cause. Identifies differences, but not why.

References

  • U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey five-year estimates, table B07009, geographical mobility in the past year by educational attainment for current residence: 2010–14 · 2015–19 · 2020–24. In-migration.
  • U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey five-year estimates, table B07409, geographical mobility in the past year by educational attainment for residence one year ago: 2010–14 · 2015–19 · 2020–24. Out-migration.
  • U.S. Census Bureau. 2025 Cartographic Boundary Files, county, 1:500,000 (cb_2025_us_county_500k).
  • AccelerateMS. 2022 Mississippi: The Road Ahead, pp. 7–14 (county-to-ecosystem assignments).

© 2026 Thomas Lockhart Garner. Text, figures and design licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse anywhere, including commercially, with credit. The underlying Census data is public domain. Independent analysis, not affiliated with or endorsed by AccelerateMS or the U.S. Census Bureau. Credits and licenses