AN ECOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF MIGRATION IN METROPOLITAN AMERICA, 1970-1975.

EMIGRATION & immigration; METROPOLITAN areas; POPULATION; HUMAN ecology; SOCIAL change

NORTHEASTERN States; SOUTHERN States; UNITED States

The article describes the dissimilar migration experiences of southern and nonsouthern metropolitan areas in the U.S between 1970-1975. Since 1970, for example, most regions of the United States have been experiencing more relative nonmetropolitan population gain than metropolitan. This change has been caused by real changes in out-migration rates at practically all ages in both areas. However, the growth of nonmetropolitan America since 1970 has not been occurring at the expense of all of metropolitan America. The metropolitan areas most responsible for the migration reversals are mainly the larger and older ones in the North, not those in the South. Between 1970 and 1975 the population of the United States increased by almost 10 million persons, with more than half that increase occurring in the South. About half of the more than five million increase in the South was attributable to natural increase, the remaining half to net migration. From the perspective of human ecology, migration is the principal mechanism of social change and adaptability for human populations. The ecological approach to migration suggests that there is a reciprocal relationship between population size and sustenance organization.