Change of usual dwelling unit (house, flat, etc.) during a fixed period of time is the common denominator to measuring the amount of spatial mobility within different countries. Around 1980 or 1981, the percentage of population who moved from one dwelling unit to another in one year was over 19 per cent in New Zealand, 17–18 per cent in the United States, Canada, and Australia, 9–10 per cent in Great Britain, Sweden, Japan and France, 7–8 per cent in the Netherlands and Belgium, and 6 per cent in Ireland. Evaluation of ‘age schedules’ of local and non-local movement reveals especially high mobility among U.S. children, and a narrowing of mobility differences for older people between countries, particularly over local distances. Life-table techniques help to quantify the amount of mobility associated with different marital statuses, and bring into focus some of the sequelae of these statuses for men and women in different countries.