Abstract

The study assessed the social factors that influence residential area preference in Otukpo town of Benue State Nigeria Variables considered based on households characteristics and used for the study include sex age marital status household size educational level safety of neighbourhoods and availability of school power supply water supply and public transport Three sampling techniques were employed for the study First stratified sampling technique was used to stratify the study area into eleven 11 residential areas secondly systematic random sampling was used in which one household head was selected based on the skipping ratio of four 4 per interval A total of 400 households were selected and administered questionnaire but 386 households returned their questionnaire The data collected for this study was analysed using factor analysis because of its ability to reduce large variables to manageable factors Using factor analysis based on Kaiser Principle two factors were extracted using the variable maximization method with Eigen values of 8 76 and percentage contributory variance of 79 614 These social factors include sex 947 educational level 947 marital status 919 occupation 906 safety of neighbourhood 942 power supply 829 availability of school 918 water supply 940 and public transport 685 The study revealed a positive relationship between the factors and shows the extent to which these factors strongly influence residential area preference in Otukpo town produce a number of significant parameters that define the factors which explain the social variation in residential area preference in Otukpo town The study therefore concludes that residents locate in the study area where urban infrastructures are accessible available and functional The study therefore recommends that basic residential infrastructures such as pipe-borne water electricity shopping centres and schools are either not available or