The structure of interstate and interregional migration: 1965–1970

This study examines the structure present in interstate migration at the national level and interregional migration in the Western states in an attempt to identify the interrelationships that exist between the respective areal units. Places which act as important origins and destinations in the process are determined through the use of nodal and principal component analyses. It is found that the nation can be dichotomized into regions oriented towards the states of California and Florida and that the western part of the nation can also be regionalized into a small number of important migration fields. The centers of the majority of these fields are metropolitan areas. Such identification of the spatial organization provides a useful picture of the areal extents over which major attractive centers have influence.The author wishes to acknowledge the financial support of the Academic Senate Committee on Research, University of California, Santa Barbara, California.