Relationship between Residential Patterns and Socioeconomic Statuses Based on Multi-Source Spatial Data: A Case Study of Nanjing, China

Abstract

The relationship between residential patterns and socioeconomic statuses highlights the complex interactions between the economic regime, welfare system, and neighborhood effects, which are crucial in urban inequality studies. With the diversification of the housing demand and supply system, the traditional analysis conducted separately from the ethnic or spatial segregation perspective fails to capture the rising inequalities and changing socio-spatial context. Taking Nanjing as an example, based on a multi-source database including the housing price, residential environmental quality, surrounding support facilities, and mobile phone user portrait data, this paper proposed a modified method for discovering the coupling relationship between residential patterns and socioeconomic statuses. It is found that socioeconomic status contributes to residential spatial aggregation and that the relationship between social and spatial dimensions of residential differentiation is tightly coupled and related. The lower socioeconomic strata were displaced to the periphery and the older urban core, while affluent inhabitants were more likely to settle voluntarily in segregated enclaves to isolate themselves from the general population through more flexible housing options. The heterogeneity of the urban socioeconomic dimension is primarily affected by consumption and occupational status, while housing prices mainly determine the divergence of spatial distribution.