The latest U.S. census data available on migration patterns shows metropolitan Pittsburgh gaining more residents from the Philadelphia area than in the net exchange with any other region. That’s a far cry from trends years ago, when Pittsburghers were more likely to be headed east than the other way around, reports The Pittsburg Post Gazette.

“I absolutely have been seeing more Philadelphians here, and they are definitely feeling something for Pittsburgh,” said Jake Sam, 24, who grew up in the suburbus of Philly and moved to Pittsburgh for College. “It’s blossoming in terms of art and culture. It’s blossoming in terms of a youth movement. … It’s drawing people in. You’ve got the landscape, the bridges, the rivers, everything.”

The bureau estimates that there was net influx of 2,165 people annually from the Philadelphia-to- Pittsburgh metro areas in that 2010-14 span.The Philadelphia migration seems especially curious because it is a region that grew in population during those years (from a combination of births and international migration) at a time when the seven-county Pittsburgh area’s population was stagnant, and even losing a few thousand people compared with the 2010 census. 

Strong recent migration from the Philadelphia area could be attached to growth during the same period of Pittsburgh-area colleges and universities, as the Census Bureau considers students to be residents of wherever they’re studying full time rather than where their parents live.

Nevertheless, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, in general, people are not moving nearly as much as they used to. The 11.2 percent of Americans who moved in 2016 is the lowest annual percentage ever cited by the bureau.

As reported in the Pittsburg Post Gazette.