Poll: One-third say financial struggles made them relocate during pandemic

One in three Americans who relocated during the coronavirus pandemic said they did so due to related financial issues, according to polling from Pew Research Center released Thursday.

In a November survey, a total of 32 percent of adults who moved lat year cited monetary hardships, including 17 percent who named the loss of their jobs and another 15 percent who said it was due to another financial reason. Comparatively, in June 2020, 18 percent of people who had relocated cited financial reasons, either a job loss or otherwise.

Meanwhile, 17 percent said they had moved to be closer to a relative or partner, down slightly from 20 percent in June, while 14 percent said they relocated due to particular risk from the virus where they lived. This represented a major drop from June, when 28 percent of those relocating did so due to the risk of the virus in their area.

A similar percentage of respondents who had someone else move in with them cited financial difficulties. Thirty-six percent of that group cited money trouble, compared to 18 percent who said closer proximity to a relative or partner and 14 percent who cited the risk of the virus where the person who moved in had lived.

Among those who moved during the pandemic, the percentage relocating specifically to a family member’s home fell over the course of 2020, from 61 percent in June to 42 percent in November. Thirty percent of movers relocated to parents’ or in-laws’ houses, according to the November survey, while the rest moved to a child’s home, that of a child’s spouse or that of another relative.

Of adults who reported someone moving in with them, 51 percent said the person was an adult child or their spouse, while 23 percent named a parent or parent-in-law. Twenty-nine percent said a friend had moved in, while 24 percent named a partner and 35 percent said someone else.

Pollsters surveyed 12,648 panelists from a 13,568-person panel between Nov. 18-29. The poll had a 1.5-point margin of error.