Citizenship in ancient Athens was predicated upon legitimate descent from citizen parents, but was also rooted in a place-based system of deme affiliation and registration. This system of deme affiliation was hereditary, and no systems were in place to change such affiliations if individuals changed their place of residence. While it is accepted that many Athenians did not reside in the deme with which they were affiliated, it has been generally assumed that the value placed on ancestral place of residence, referenced by Thucydides and other ancient authors, shaped people’s migratory habits so that they were predominantly bipolar – either countryside or city – and centripetal, as the economic and political attractions of the urban center could be the only inducement strong enough to break the ties of attachment with the home deme. However, an evidence-based investigation of the migratory habits of Athenian citizens reveals not only that these patterns were far more dynamic than has been previously appreciated, but also that our understanding of the ways in which citizens engaged with the democratic organization of the polis needs to be nuanced to reflect a range of political, social, and economic strategies. In turn, this significantly impacts views on the operation of the democracy outside the urban centers and the demography of the polis as a whole.