Internet usage and residential moves: What do we know?

It is normally important to have accurate address information for statistical and health-screening purposes. However, internet-based methods (eg email) can be used as an alternative and they have the virtue of being ‘placeless’ (eg not tied to a fixed address or geographical location). This could be of value when people change address and become hard to contact if they do not update their address information in administrative data sources.

This project therefore focusses on the relationship between internet usage and address changes, and the various demographic, household and geographical factors that are associated with (a) internet usage and (b) address change and (c) the relationship between address change and internet usage. It takes the 2011 Census as a starting point and looks at subsequent address changes in terms of whether the household return was made via the internet as well as other 2011 individual and household characteristics such as age, education, ethnicity, and geographical location. The analysis focuses on internal moves within Northern Ireland but also looks at moves that take the NILS member outside Northern Ireland as an emigrant as well as at re-entrants and immigrants.

Publications and Outputs:

Cooke, T. J., & Shuttleworth, I. (2018). The effects of information and communication technologies on residential mobility and migration. Population, Space and Place, 24(3), 1-11. [e2111]. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2111