Residents’ Socio-economic Characteristics and the Residential Mobility Process in an Urban Space: The Example of the Warri Metropolis, Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

KEYWORDS Intra-urban. Socio-Economic. Preferences. Housing. Neighbourhoods. Logistic Regression ABSTRACT Residential mobility may be defined as the movement of residents from one house to another, or from one neighbourhood/part of a town/city to another. We reiterate, however, that the residential character of a city or neighbourhood is generally created and shaped through the locational behaviour and decisions of individuals and families. Consequently, our examination of how residents' socio-economic characteristics impact on the intra-urban residential mobility process in the Warri metropolis requires that we consider the defining criteria within the concept of residential areas. The bases used in identifying residential areas/neighbourhoods have been grouped into two major classes, namely: the environmental features/characteristics of residential neighbourhoods and the socio-economic structure of residential areas. This paper, however, concentrates on the second class of criteria. The data used in our analysis are derived from a survey into urban housi ng in the Warri Metropolis, Nigeria, in the summer of 2005. Seven hundred and sixty-two (762) respondents participated in the data gathering process. The socio-economic characteristics of respondents in all the study neighbourhoods are closely examined, after which the Logistic Regression technique was used to evaluate the relationship that exists between these variables and intra-urban residential mobility. The results of the regression analysis confirm a strong relationship between residents' socio-economic characteristics and intra-urban mobility in the Warri metropolis.