Mormons Move: Mobility Data and Latter-day Saints in the GSS

Abstract

Bass uses General Social Survey data to test the stereotype that LDS members are geographically anchored to the Mountain West. He finds LDS respondents are unusually mobile across Census regions — comparable to Jews and Episcopalians — with flows concentrated along a Pacific-to-Mountain corridor. The mobility gap is not explained by education differences.

Findings for Latter-day Saints

• 29% of LDS respondents live in a different Census region than at age 16, vs. a 21% national average.
• LDS college attainment (25%) is only 2 points above the national average (23%) — too small to explain the 8-point mobility gap.
• LDS mobility is statistically comparable to Jews (30%) and Episcopalians (31%).
• The Pacific-to-Mountain corridor is the single thickest migration flow in the data.
• Mobility pattern persists across education levels.

Limitations in methodology

Substack blog analysis; GSS LDS subsample is small, widening uncertainty; "region at age 16" is retrospective self-report.

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Cite this study

Bass, A. (2026). Mormons Move: Mobility Data and Latter-day Saints in the GSS. Mormon Metrics (Substack). https://mormonmetrics.com/p/mormons-move

Alex Bass. "Mormons Move: Mobility Data and Latter-day Saints in the GSS." Mormon Metrics (Substack), 2026. https://mormonmetrics.com/p/mormons-move.

@article{bass_2026_mormons_move_mobility,
  title = {Mormons Move: Mobility Data and Latter-day Saints in the GSS},
  author = {Alex Bass},
  year = {2026},
  journal = {Mormon Metrics (Substack)},
  url = {https://mormonmetrics.com/p/mormons-move},
}