The Geographical Psycology of Recent Graduates in the Netherlands: Relating Personality Traits to Location Choice

There is ample evidence from different research disciplines that locational factors such as employment opportunities or the availability of amenities and facilities are a powerful predictor of settlement behaviour. Recent research suggests that citizens’ mean personality traits might be an additional predictor of where young people settle themselves.

We therefore explore
(1) to what extent recent graduates in the Netherlands are geographically clustered with respect to five different personality traits,
(2) whether or not the geographical clustering is intensified after graduation
(3) how regional characteristics are related to personality traits, and
(4) to what extent personality traits play a role in graduates’ location choice.

Our results reveal a distinct geographical clustering of personality traits between the North and South of the Netherlands. We also show that this geographical clustering becomes more blurred as respondents age. The results furthermore show robust associations between personality traits and several regional demographic, health, political and physical outcomes. In addition to this, we show that personality traits play a role in graduates’ location choices. The impact of economic factors seem to be larger in determining location choice than the impact of personality traits in shaping location choice.

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