The impact of residential immobility and population turnover on the support networks of older people living in rural areas: Evidence from CFAS Wales

This article addresses two questions: Are “stayers”—defined as older people who were born in an area and lived there for 25 years or more prior to interview—more likely to have locally integrated or family dependent networks than other types of networks in the 21st century? Does population turnover influence the support networks of older people more strongly than being a “stayer”? A sample of 1,870 participants living in rural areas is drawn from cross‐sectional (Wave 1) data (version 2) from the Cognitive Function and Ageing Study (CFAS Wales). Five multinomial logistic regression models are used to establish how demographic covariates, cumulative population turnover, inflow, outflow, and stayer influence membership of family dependent, locally integrated, local self‐contained, wider community focused, and private restricted support networks. The results reveal significant differences in the distribution of network types between stayers and non‐stayers. Stayers were more likely to have locally integrated or family dependent networks and were less likely to have wider community focused or private restricted networks than non‐stayers. Gender, marital status, education, disability, childlessness, area deprivation, and cumulative population turnover, inflow, and outflow (by age group) also influence membership of different networks. The research has implications for planning of formal services in rural places characterised by “ageing in place” or as “ageing places” and comprising socially engaged and socially marginalised networks. In particular, providers of social care should take into account the different types of support that may be required to bolster socially marginalised support networks.