Abstract: The quantitative analysis of Ningbo data led to the following finding: With the level of population structure raised by one percent, the level of industrial structure would be improved by 5.12 percent. While floating populations could provide support for a rapidly rising urban economy, they might at the same time hold back the growth of urban industrial structure because they could pull down the level of the urban population structure, thus reducing the speed of its escalation. This paper offers three explanations, namely, the capital substitute effect from floating populations can weaken enterprises’ initiative creativity; the lack of knowledge and skills of floating populations can hinder enterprises’ advances in technology; and the low consuming power of floating populations can help sustain the space for the survival of the industries on the low end.

Key words: floating population, level of population structure, industrial structure improvement, empirical study