# How far do you live from the place you were born? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 13, 2020, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959 "2020-08-13T03:45:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/82 "2020-08-14T18:19:13Z")
2775 miles, Bethesda MD to Bremerton WA. I wonder what factors come into play for those of us who stayed close to home and those of us who are farther away. I didn’t hate where I grew up, but always just assumed I’d end up somewhere else. Left for college at 17 and never moved back “home.” ---
**Author:** ![julezz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@julezz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/julezz)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2020, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/83 "2020-08-15T02:50:35Z")
Live in AZ, born in PA. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2020, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/84 "2020-08-15T03:08:42Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I wonder what factors come into play for those of us who stayed close to home and those of us who are farther away. I dunno. My dad was in the Air Force, so I was well used to moving around, and have no deep roots in any one place. As it was, the idea of “home”, to me, is simply where I live at the moment. So, to me, the idea of moving ~10,000 miles was just a pain in the neck, not an existential change. Maybe if had been to a more “foreign” place than Australia, one where I didn’t already speak the language… _shrug_ Heck, I don’t even _remember_ where I was born, and I’ve only been back in Detroit once - long enough to spend the night, and then rent a car to visit my folks elsewhere in Michigan, on a trip from Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2020, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/85 "2020-08-15T03:31:30Z")
About 1700km. Going to be a lot closer soon, though. ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2020, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/86 "2020-08-15T04:32:21Z")
11 ½ miles as the crow flies, and if that crow were to drive it would be a bit over 16 miles. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2020, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/87 "2020-08-15T04:45:33Z")
> [@galen\_ubal](#): > > Heck, I don’t even _remember_ where I was born They say I was born there Though I really don’t remember ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2020, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/88 "2020-08-15T04:54:12Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I wonder what factors come into play for those of us who stayed close to home and those of us who are farther away. In my case it was somewhat by chance. I stayed in my hometown after high school because I had no reason to leave. I got married, had kids, and decided to go back to school in my late 20’s. Community college then university in Portland. After graduating I was applying for jobs as far away as Chicago (a place I had never and still have never been to) when I got a tip that the community college in my hometown was looking for instructors. I applied, got hired, and 4 years later here I am… still. My wife has never wanted to leave so its worked out, I guess. I don’t particularly like it here – it’s very economically depressed, the people aren’t particularly friendly, and the politics are a red as can possibly be – but at this point we’re stable which is pretty important to me. The hospital I was born in is the same hospital my two children, now teenagers, were born in. The hospital my wife was born in was razed 20+ years ago and now part of the lot is still rubble and the rest is a newly-built DHS office. The college where I’m a professor is the same college my father graduated from in 1979. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2020, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/89 "2020-08-15T05:34:02Z")
8.4 miles building to building and this is the furthest I have lived away from the hospital. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2020, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/90 "2020-08-15T06:41:10Z")
Born in Arizona Moved to Babylonia King Tut. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2020, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/91 "2020-08-15T06:56:05Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I am guessing that any Doper who lives around 12,450 miles from birth home would win, since it would be mathematically impossible to be further than that. You’re making a big assumption that no Dopers live on the ISS. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2020, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/92 "2020-08-15T12:41:55Z")
For me, it’s not that I never left: I did, and lived in Montana (on the other end of the country) for over a decade. It’s beautiful country out there, and I wouldn’t mind living there permanently, but I still have family around here (my mom still lives in the house I grew up in, for starters), and I wanted to be closer to them, so I moved back. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2020, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/93 "2020-08-15T20:40:29Z")
Born in the far North West of England, live in the deep South East, about a 400 mile drive. HOWEVER - had the question been, _How far do you live from where your great grandmother was born_, the answer (as my brother discovered a few years ago) would be about four miles. Three generations of being economic migrants, and we ended up back where we started. Huh. j ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/94 "2020-08-16T06:41:23Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > You’re making a big assumption that no Dopers live on the ISS. Well, the ISS is only 255 miles above the surface of the earth at the maximum, so that doesn’t make a huge difference compared to terrestrial distances. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/95 "2020-08-16T09:30:01Z")
5243 miles from the hospital where I was born to here. Hospital’s still there, different name and organization. No driving distance available. Too much water. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/96 "2020-08-16T10:01:57Z")
10, 846 KM (6,740 miles) ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/97 "2020-08-16T13:48:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For me, it’s not that I never left: I did, and lived in Montana (on the other end of the country) for over a decade. I recall an episode of Barney Miller in which a character complained about being relocated to Billings, of which he said “It’s like Cleveland, with sheep”. Can you attest to the accuracy of that statement? ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/98 "2020-08-16T15:25:42Z")
I can walk to the vacant lot where my childhood home sat in about ten or fifteen minutes ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2020, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/99 "2020-08-16T16:28:13Z")
Well, I was in Bozeman, not Billings, but I have no idea what he’d be referring to there. The county Cleveland is in has about as much population as all of Montana, the geography is dominated by a Great Lake instead of mountains, and Montana has many more cows than sheep. About the only thing they have in common is that neither one is Los Angeles, which might be enough similarity for a TV writer. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2020, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/100 "2020-08-17T05:03:51Z")
I’m 10,800 plus km which is 6,700 plus mi. Salt Lake City to my smallish city in Taiwan. I’ve lived in Asia for 33ish years. And gradually losing connections with my hometown. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2020, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959/101 "2020-08-17T13:25:13Z")
As of now, about 605 miles from Northern Ohio to Northern Alabama; longest was the 4 years I lived in Abu Dhabi, about 7,100 miles away. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-do-you-live-from-the-place-you-were-born/917959.md?page=6)