Social Physics and China’s Population Migration

Based on the social physics theory, this paper analyzes the economic disparities between different regions in China, and contributes a conceptual model of population migration among eastern, central, western and north-eastern regions. The national 1% population sample investigation data is adopted to build a network of inter-provincial population migration, and the population migration network is analyzed with social network analysis. The results are shown that there is a very strong correlation between migrant population and economy disparity in China, and the migration with obviously geographical characteristics. The eastern region is the main areas for migration-inflow; the central region is the main areas of migration-outflow; the western region is relatively “locked-up”, with a little of population flow; and the migration of the northeast is mainly within its own regional territory.