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(Iowa) -- A new report from Iowa State University shows a rising number of ISU grads returning to Iowa since having left the state following graduation.
The report describes two types of "brain drain" seen in Iowa, the first being the trend of graduates leaving rural communities and moving to cities and the second involving graduates moving out of state to larger cities following graduation. The report examines data from two studies, one conducted in 2008 and the other in 2024. The two studies combined show migration trends for ISU starting in 1982.
The studies find modest improvements over time concerning the number of graduates who leave the state and eventually move back. Peter Orazem, Professor of Economics at Iowa State University, says while a lot of ISU grads left the state in the early 1980s, the 2024 study in particular shows, "by 2024, a bunch of those people have actually returned. What's interesting also is that they returned to urban areas of the state and not back to rural areas, and so they were atypically moving to places like Cedar Rapids and Des Moines."
Despite the return of ISU graduates who had previously left the state, the drain in rural areas remains substantial. The new report finds 60%-80% of ISU alumni originally from rural areas move to cities and other urban centers.
The full report is available on the Iowa State Center for Agricultural and Rural Development website.