American Young Adults’ Rural-to-Urban Migration and Timing of Exits from Poverty Spells Yoko Mimura Teresa A. Mauldin University of Georgia ABSTRACT: This study examined the timing of exit from poverty among rural young adults who migrated to urban areas in the United States, using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, with a focus on gender and marital status. Pov- erty spells that involved relocation to urban areas lasted longer than those that did not. Poverty exit rates upon relocation to urban areas declined each year the young adults remained in poverty, but the impact remaining in urban areas had on reduced poverty exit rates diminished when family characteristics, human capital, and labor market factors were controlled. KEY WORDS: internal migration; poverty; young adults. Poverty in rural areas of the United States has typically exceeded that of metropolitan or urban areas (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2002). The economic performance of rural areas, with slower eco- nomic growth, higher unemployment, and lower wage rates, has been lagging behind that of urban areas (Lichter & Costanzo, 1987; O’Hare, 1988; Rural Sociological Society Task Force on Persistent Rural Poverty, 1993). Young adults in rural areas have been particu- larly vulnerable to poverty because they achieve lower levels of edu- cation, receive lower wages, and are more likely to be in low-wage occupations compared to their urban counterparts (Lichter, John- Yoko Mimura, Department of Housing and Consumer Economics, Dawson Hall, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-2622; e-mail: ymimura@fcs.uga.edu. Teresa A. Mauldin, Department of Housing and Consumer Economics, Dawson Hall, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-2622; e-mail: tmauldin@fcs.uga.edu. This research was supported by the United States Department of Agriculture through the Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station and also by the Jagdish N. Sheth Foundation’s Association for Consumer Research Public-Purpose Dissertation Award. An earlier version of this paper was prepared for a presentation at the Popula- tion Association of America Annual Meeting 2001, Washington DC. We thank Deborah Godwin and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and Karen Braxley for edito- rial assistance and insightful comments. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Vol. 26(1), Spring 2005 Ó 2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. DOI: 10.1007/s10834-004-1412-4 55