The effect of climate on migration: United States, 1995–2000

• Published in: Social science research Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 743 - 753
• Main Authors: Poston, Dudley L., Zhang, Li, Gotcher, David J., Gu, Yuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.09.2009; Academic Press
• Subjects: Climate; Climate Change; Decision Making; Demographics; Ecological and Environmental Phenomena; Emigration and Immigration - statistics & numerical data; Emigration and Immigration - trends; Environmental Factors; History of medicine and histology; Human Ecology; Humans; Humidity; Internal Migration; Measurement; Migration; Physical environment; Population Dynamics - statistics & numerical data; Population Dynamics - trends; Regression Analysis; Social research; Technology; Temperature; U.S.A; United States; United States of America; Weather; Wind; United States > US; USA; Wind; Climate; Temperature; Human ecology; Migration; Humidity
• ISSN: 0049-089X; 1096-0317
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2008.10.003

This paper examines the effect of climate on migration. We examine whether climate is an influential factor in internal migration. We assume that most persons tend to avoid exposure to bitter and cold winters, and excessively hot and humid summers, preferring climates between these extremes. When engaging in-migration decision-making, therefore, to the extent possible, considerations involving climate are believed to be brought into the calculus. There is a very limited demographic literature on the effects of climate on migration. In this paper, we undertake an aggregate-based analysis of the effect of climate on migration. We examine this relationship among the 50 states of the United States. We focus attention on the varying effects of climate on three migration measures for the 1995–2000 time period, namely, in-migration, out-migration, and net migration. We next evaluate the effect of climate on migration in the context of a broad application of human ecology. Here climate, a manifestation of the physical environment, is measured with three major independent variables. The other ecological predictors pertaining to organization, population, technology, and the social environment are used as controls. This enables us to examine the effects of climate on migration in the context of competing ecological hypotheses.