Spartanburg County has an intransient population, as natives tend to remain in S.C. and fewer outside residents move into the county than into other counties. The data in Table 4 show that Spartanburg is the most intransient county among peer counties and is more intransient than the state and national average. Therefore, educational attainment data are not confounded by residents who move into and out of the county. In fact, Spartanburg County is the only peer county where in-migration falls below the U.S. and S.C. averages on both measures.

Taken together these findings suggest that current generational cohorts of Spartanburg residents have begun to attain higher levels of education, at least in terms of graduating high school. This may be explained by the fact that, in recent years, low wage textile and manufacturing jobs have left the area and students may be more motivated to stay in high school and graduate in order to obtain more sustainable jobs. When low wage jobs were plentiful in Spartanburg County the population may not have been motivated, vocationally, to degree attainment. Still, Spartanburg County apparently lacks the in-migration "draw" that characterizes other peer counties.

Notably, however, each year for the last two decades about one incoming college freshman in five starts college in another state. Post-secondary Education OPPORTUNITY reports that in 2006, 18.3% of first time college freshmen, or 357,251 students nationwide, started college in another state, despite the higher costs of out-of-state or private tuition. A 2007 survey of freshmen by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA found that the following "attractiveness" factors influence a student’s decision to attend a particular college:

 Good academic reputation- 63.0%

Graduates get good jobs- 51.9%

A visit to campus- 40.4%

Offered financial assistance- 39.4%

School about the right size- 38.9%

Good reputation for social life- 37.1%

Cost of attendance- 36.8%

Grads go to top grad schools-34.1%

Wanted to live near home- 19.2%

Ranking in magazines- 17.6%

Information from a website- 17.0%

Parents wanted me here- 13.0%

Admitted early action / decision-11.4%

The median distance from home to college increases as parental income, high school grade point average, plans for degree attainment , and college selectivity increases. About 95% of interstate migration of college freshmen is by students enrolling in four-year colleges and universities, public and private. In 2006, there were 18 states, including S.C., with positive net migration flows for freshmen to both public and private four-year institutions. S.C. had the 12th highest net migration of freshmen and the 4th highest net migration of freshmen to public four-year institutions, with a total of 6,793 students from other states enrolled in S.C. degree-granting institutions. (The net migration of freshmen to private institutions in S.C. is substantially lower.) Since 1996, S.C. has been among 26 states with substantial net migration gains in freshmen, ranking 22nd for the 1996-2006 period.

In 2006, each out-of-state student in public four-year institutions brought with them a minimum of $26,304. Immigrants to private four-year institutions brought with them a minimum of $33,301. After adjusting these figures by 120% to include the ripple effects to local and state economies, S.C. benefited by an estimated $1.6 billion from these immigrant students. The share of gross state product of interstate student migration for S.C. in 2006 was 1.11%.

The relevance of these data for Spartanburg is significant. Although emigration and migration flows of college-age Spartanburg residents is beyond the scope of this report, further study would indicate whether Spartanburg County is realizing its share of the economic benefit of net student migration to S.C. It would behoove local colleges and universities, and the county, to examine their attractiveness to potential out-of-state students.