Author
Wendy Shaw 
   Department of Geography
   Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
   Edwardsville, Illinois
   E-mail

Title
The Spatial Abandonment and Spatial Clustering of the Elderly 
in the United States

Abstract
This paper seeks to identify regions where the elderly poor have 
become a spatially abandoned group, that contrast to geographic 
concentrations of non-poor older Americans.  A Geographic 
Information System (GIS) is used to identify counties with 
1) high concentrations of elderly population, that suffer from 
higher than average poverty rates, and that have lost significant 
population and 2) high concentrations of elderly population, that 
enjoy much lower than average poverty rates, and that have gained 
significant population.  Additionally analysis of variance is used 
to establish fundamental differences between the two groups of 
counties identified. A Principle Components Analysis and Cluster 
Analysis are used to explore the existence of sub-groupings of 
counties within the two basic groups. The results obtained reveal 
there are distinct regions where the poor elderly can be considered 
to be spatially abandoned, and also where the non-poor elderly 
cluster.  The socioeconomic profile for counties identified as poor 
and spatially abandoned is fundamentally different from those 
identified within the non-poor group. Results also indicate 
that significant sub-groupings of counties. Discussion of the 
results obtained provides information on the socioeconomic profile 
of the poor versus non-poor county groupings, and reveals the 
fundamental geography of elderly abandonment.

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