人口遷移與社會經濟變遷的密切關係早就被社會及經濟學者所公認，但是很少人提供經驗研究以支持或否定此種假設。本研究試圖探討人口遷移與社會經濟變遷的關係。其具體目的為：一、了解以前的社會經濟變遷與人口遷移的關係；二、辨認社會經濟發展的程度與人口遷移的關係；三、探討同一時期之社會經濟變遷與人口遷移的關係。 這個研究設計與傳統所使用的方法不大一樣。我們採用三組自變數和二個層次的分析方法。第一組自變數代表人口遷移前十年間之社會經濟變遷情形；第二組變數代表人口遷移開始時之社會經濟程度；第三組變數則代表與人口遷移同一時期之社會經濟變遷。 為了了解社會經濟因素與人口遷移的一般關係，本研究採用多變數迴歸分析的方法。為了驗證人口遷移與社會經濟變遷相互影響的理論，則採用路徑分析的技巧。 本研究資料主要取自1950，1960及1970美國之人口普國查報告書。就一般而論，社會經濟變遷影響人口遷移，人口遷移也進而影響社會經濟變遷的理論得到本研究的支持。

The close relationship between migrations and socioeconomic changes is a consensus among social researchers and economists. However, very few evidence-based studies are conducted to support or deny this hypothesis. This article aims to explore the relationship between migration and socioeconomic change. Objectives include: 1. Understand historical relationship between socioeconomic changes and migrations. 2. Identify the relationship between socioeconomic development level and migration. 3. Explore the relationship of socioeconomic change and migration in the same period. This study is designed slightly different from traditional methods. We adopt three individual variables and two levels in this analysis. The first individual variable represents socioeconomic changes in the ten years before migration. The second variable represents socioeconomic status when migration starts. The third variable represents socioeconomic changes during migration. To understand general relationship between socioeconomic factors and migration, the studies adopts multiple variable regression analysis. To verify the hypothesis that migration and socioeconomic change influence each other, we adopt path analysis. Data mainly come from US population survey reports in 1950, 1960 and 1970. In general, this study supports that socioeconomic change influences migration, and migration influences socioeconomic change.