Impact of urban satisfaction on settlement intention: Differences in household registration and city size

Urban satisfaction plays a crucial role in improving the settlement intention of urban residents. The household registration system has complicated the relationship between urban satisfaction and settlement intention, especially considering the diversity cities of different population size during the process of urbanization in China. Based on a large-scale survey in 2020 from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in 36 cities, this paper explores the impact of urban satisfaction on residents’ settlement intention, and the moderating impacts caused by household registration status and city population size. Multilevel model, multinomial logistic model, and Heckman two-stage method are used for the analysis. The results indicate that urban satisfaction is positively associated with settlement intention. Both the impacts of individual characteristics and city attributes on settlement intention varies with household registration status. Besides, there is a U-shaped relationship between urban population and settlement intention, and residents of cities with the smallest populations report high settlement intention. This research contributes to understanding the role of household registration system in moderating the relationship between urban satisfaction and settlement intention, and it offers insights into urban population introduction policy and healthy urbanization in China.