Abstract: This paper uses the factorial ecological analysis and cluster analysis (Ward's method) to explore the social spatial structure of Urumqi in 2011. The result reveals that major factors under consideration for the components of social structure in Urumqi include minority population, the intelligentsia, workers and retirees; government civil servants, higher management and service staff, floating population from outside Xinjiang and agriculture population. According to the factor scores in 2011, the city of Urumqi can be divided into six types of social areas: (1) ethnically mixed areas, located in the eastern part; (2) the intelligentsia areas, exhibiting a multi-nuclear pattern; (3) areas of workers and retirees, located in the northwestern, northeastern and eastern parts; (4) densely-populated areas with civil servants, senior management and service staff, located in the urban core areas, which are also the most developed areas of Urumqi; (5) areas of floating population from outside, located around the core area; (6) agricultural areas, located in the northern suburbs. On the whole, the concept model of the urban social structure in 2011 mainly exhibits a sectoral and multi-nuclear pattern with no obvious concentric structure. Urumqi's socio-spatial structure has formed on the basis of physical geography in the 250 years of development, which has been influenced by factors of socioeconomic development, government policies and urban planning. Urumqi has in common with and also differs from major domestic cities in aspects of the impact factors of social areas, ethnic composition, occupational composition and spatial distribution of the floating population, and the pattern of social spatial structure.

Key words: social spatial structure, urban social area, factorial ecological analysis, Urumqi