Since I’ve been running this blog I’ve had the opportunity to meet and talk to many South Berwick residents I never knew before. This morning I was thinking of the span of time people have been here. I’ve talked to some who have lived here all their lives and some who just moved here in the last few months. I got to wondering about the proportion of natives, long time residents, and new comers and that sent me off to look at the Census data. Here is what I found:

Place of birth of U.S. born South Berwick residents based on 2000 U.S. Census data:
Born in Maine: 20%
Born in another state: 80%

That doesn’t get at it. 80% of us were born in another state, but that includes people who were born in Dover and Portsmouth who were brought home to South Berwick. The 20% born in Maine includes those who lived in other Maine towns and moved here. So my only conclusion: A lot of us were born out of state.

Then I looked at the data from the 2000 Census where residents were asked when they had moved into their current home. Here is what I found:

Again this doesn’t get at it either. This includes people who moved from one home in South Berwick to another. But it does show a lot of movement. In 2000 57% of South Berwick residents had moved into their home in the last ten years and only 11% had lived in their home for more than thirty years.

The Census data couldn’t answer my question about how many natives, long time residents, and new comers there are here. So that leads me to my question:

When did you come to South Berwick and what brought you here?

I’ll tell you my answer in the comments and you do the same.