Sources of Change in the Process of Population Redistribution in the United States, 1955–1980

Abstract

The location of population in the United States is being altered by processes of population redistribution which are themselves subject to change. A framework for the investigation of changes in a continuing process of population redistribution is introduced in this paper, and is used to test hypotheses about the sources of change in the process of the redistribution over the states of the USA. Changes in migration behavior are the major source of change in redistribution patterns, and incremental logit models are used to test the hypothesis that changes in migration behavior are responsive to changes in the localization of employment and changes in the demography of the population. Models of changes in migration behavior are used to construct a series of models of the relocation of population, which are investigated by means of information statistics. The results support the hypothesis that patterns of population redistribution in the 1970s differed substantially from the patterns of earlier decades. Changes in migration behavior are associated with changes in the location of employment opportunities, and the employment-related changes in out-migration and destination choice account, in turn, for much of the change in population redistribution patterns.