This project was started in 2014 by a group of academics who grew up in rural Vermont. We wanted to learn why our fellow Vermonters left, stayed in, or returned to Vermont. We wanted people to give their story in their own words.

We posted on on-line survey on our personal social media platforms and sent it to friends, former high school classmates, and neighbors and asked them to pass it on. Thousands of people answered in a short time. The stories and information people shared gave us insight into how work, family, connection to landscape, and quality of life figure into decisions to live in or move away from rural communities. Findings from this study are available on the Vermont Roots Migration website.

The Vermont research was led by Cheryl Morse, a geography professor at the University of Vermont. She wanted to know how people from other rural states in the U.S. would respond to the questions Vermonters answered, and so collaborated with Andrew Husa at the University of Nebraska to run the American Roots Migration Survey in Nebraska and Missouri in 2019 and 2021. 

Now, in 2025, we are taking the survey to South Dakota, New Mexico, and (back to) Vermont. Mariam Gay-Antaki from the University of New Mexico has joined the team. 

Please check back on this site later see our preliminary results.
A list of academic journal articles and media stories from earlier research is listed in the Publications page.

All research has been approved by the University of Vermont's Institutional Review Board. The Nebraska, Missouri, and South Dakota surveys also have IRB approval from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.