Though one could study any direction of absolute mobility, much of the study of absolute mobility in the US has been on absolute upward mobility, or the mobility of children who's family occupies the lowest quintile of income.

In the United States, absolute upward mobility is:

• almost perfectly linear across commuter zones (CZs)
• highly variable across commuter zones (CZs), with the Southeast region having the lowest upward mobility and the Great Plains Regions having the highest mobility.
• high in the Northeast and West regions, but not as high there as in the Great Plains region.
• very low in Native American reservations, which are known to have persistent poverty.