Using available statistics, the article analyses the dynamics of changes in the factors of migration activity of the population in Ekaterinburg-Sverdlovsk in the 20th century. Over the course of a century, the size of the urban population changed under the influence of various factors, including the level of economic activity achieved and convenient logistics. Like in other Russian cities, the growth of the population of Sverdlovsk was largely facilitated by the acquisition of the status of an administrative center. Later, including during the years of the first five-year plans, the combined effect of several factors was recorded. The developed transport system not only contributed to the active influx of the population, but also facilitated its outflow. Therefore, the city population changed rapidly during the years of wars, when numerous groups of people were in motion. In the second half of the 20th century, the factor of a large city's developed infrastructure became the most important. In the post-Soviet period, the importance of the economic factor in migration activity was growing again, including in external migration exchange.