Abstract
Increased migration to the sunbelt and the metropolitan-nonmetropolitan “turnaround” represent departures from long-standing redistribution trends. Although these patterns have been examined from a number of perspectives, their consequences for individual metropolitan areas have not yet been brought to light. In the present study, stream-disaggregated data for the late 1950s and late 1960s are employed to assess the impact of recent migration on the sizes and compositions of white populations in thirty-one large metropolitan areas.
Most large northern SMSAs have been experiencing the “new” migration patterns since the late 1950s. They have incurred net out-movements of whites to both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. In their exchanges with nonmetropolitan areas, however, they have managed to retain greater numbers of college graduates and professional workers. Southern and western SMSAs did not sustain losses to nonmetropolitan areas during either period. They did appear to gain both total and high status population as a result of interregional metropolitan redistribution.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bacon, Lloyd. 1971. Poverty Among Interregional Rural-to-Urban Migrants. Rural Sociology 36:125–140.
Barabba, Vincent P. 1975. The National Setting: Regional Shifts, Metropolitan Decline, and Urban Decay. In George Sternlieb and James W. Hughes (eds.), Post-Industrial America: Metropolitan Decline and Interregional Job Shifts. New Brunswick: Rutgers Center for Urban Policy Research.
Beale, Calvin L. 1975. The Revival of Population Growth in Nonmetropolitan America. ERS-605, Economic Development Division, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
—, and Glenn V. Fuguitt. 1978. The New Pattern of Nonmetropolitan Population Change. In Karl E. Taeuber, Larry L. Bumpass, and James A. Sweet (eds.), Social Demography. New York: Academic Press.
Cebula, Richard J., and Richard K. Vedder. 1973. A Note on Migration, Economic Opportunity, and the Quality of Life. Journal of Regional Science, 13:205–211.
DeJong, Gordon F., and Craig R. Humphrey. 1976. Selected Characteristics of Metropolitan-to-Nonmetropolitan Area Migrants: A Study of Population Redistribution in Pennsylvania. Rural Sociology 41:526–538.
Galle, Omer R., and Max W. Williams. 1972. Metropolitan Migration Efficiency. Demography 9:655–664.
Greenwood, Michael J. 1970. Lagged Response in the Decision to Migrate. Journal of Regional Science 10:375–384.
Hamilton, C. Horace. 1958. Educational Selectivity of Rural-Urban Migration: Preliminary Results of a North Carolina Study. Proceedings: Annual Milbank Memorial Fund Conference: Part III.
Hinze, Kenneth E. 1977. Causal Factors in the Net Migration Flow to Metropolitan Areas of the United States 1960–70. University of Chicago: Community and Family Study Center.
Humphrey, Craig R., Ralph R. Sell, John A. Krout, and R. Thomas Gillaspy. 1977. Net Migration Turnaround in Pennsylvania Nonmetropolitan Minor Civil Divisions, 1960–70. Rural Sociology 42:332–351.
Kirschenbaum, Alan. 1971. Patterns of Metropolitan to Nonmetropolitan Mobility: Changing Ecological Factors Affecting Family Mobility. Rural Sociology 36:315–325.
—. 1972. City-Suburb Destination Choices Among Migrants to Metropolitan Areas. Demography 9:321–335.
Long, Larry, and Kristin A. Hansen. 1975. Trends in Return Migration to the South. Demography 12:601–614.
—. 1977. Selectivity of Black Return Migration to the South. Rural Sociology 42:317–331.
Miller, Ann R. 1967. The Migration of Employed Persons to and from Metropolitan Areas of the United States. Journal of the American Statistical Association 59:1418–1432.
Morrison, Peter, and Judith P. Wheeler. 1976. Rural Renaissance in America? The Revival of Population Growth in Remote Areas. Population Bulletin Vol. 31, No.3. Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau.
Muller, Thomas. 1975. Growing and Declining Urban Areas: A Fiscal Comparison. Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute.
New York Times. 1978. Census Finds Blacks are Moving from Northeast at a Faster Rate. March 11.
Shryock, Henry S., Jr. 1964. Population Mobility Within the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago, Community and Family Studies Center.
—, and Jacob S. Siegel. 1973. The Methods and Materials of Demography. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of the Census.
Speare, Alden, Jr., Sidney Goldstein, and William H. Frey. 1975. Residential Mobility, Migration and Metropolitan Change. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger.
Sternlieb, George, and James W. Hughes (eds.) 1975. Post Industrial America: Metropolitan Decline and Interregional Job Shifts. New Brunswick: Rutgers Center for Urban Policy Research.
—, and James W. Hughes(eds.) 1978. Revitalizing the Northeast: Prelude to an Agenda. New Brunswick: Rutgers Center for Urban Policy Research.
Taeuber, Irene B. 1972. The Changing Distribution of the Population of the United States in the Twentieth Century. In Sara Mills Mazie (ed.), U.S. Commission on Population Growth and the American Future. Population Distribution and Policy, Vol. V of Commission Research Reports. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Taeuber, Karl E., and Alma F. Taeuber. 1964. White Migration and Socioeconomic Differences Between Cities and Suburbs. American Sociological Review 29:718–729.
Tucker, C. Jack. 1976. Changing Patterns of Migration Between Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas in the United States: Recent Evidence. Demography 13:435–444.
United Nations. 1970. Manual VI: Methods of Measuring Internal Migration. Population Studies No. 47. New York: United Nations.
U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1963. Census of Population: 1960. Subject Reports, Final Report PC(2)-2C. Mobility for Metropolitan Areas. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
—. 1971. Census of Population and Housing: 1970. General Demographic Trends for Metropolitan Areas 1960 to 1970. Final Report PHC(2)1. United States. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
—. 1973. Census of Population: 1970. Subject Reports, Final Report PC(2)-2C. Mobility for Metropolitan Areas. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
—. 1975. Current Population Reports, Series P20, No. 285. Mobility of the Population of the United States: March 1970 to March 1975. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
—. 1977. Current Population Reports, Series P25, No. 709. Estimates of the Population of Counties and Metropolitan Areas: July 1, 1974 and 1975. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
—. 1978. Current Population Reports, Series P25, No. 320. Geographical Mobility: March 1975 to March 1977. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Vining, Daniel R. Jr., and Thomas Kontuly. 1978. Population Dispersal from Major Metropolitan Regions: An International Comparison. International Regional Science Review 3:49–73.
Wardwell, John M. 1977. Equilibrium and Change in Nonmetropolitan Growth. Rural Sociology 42:156–179.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Frey, W.H. The changing impact of white migration on the population compositions of origin and destination metropolitan areas. Demography 16, 219–237 (1979). https://doi.org/10.2307/2061140
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2061140