To explain the migration turnaround of the 1970s, it has been suggested that the United States may be approaching an equilibrium state in the exchange of populations between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. As metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas have become more similar in population composition and industrial and socioeconomic characteristics, the people involved in interchanges between areas should be roughly equal in number and similar in characteristics. The equilibrium hypothesis was tested using county-to-county migration flows data from the 1980 census of population for Texas. Inmigrants and outmigrants in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties in Texas were compared in terms of their demographic, labor force and employment, and socioeconomic characteristics. Based on interchange ratios and indices of dissimilarity, the results suggest that the net impact on receiving and origin areas varies substantially from one area of the state to another. The size of flows involving nonmetropolitan areas in the State of Texas and other areas were unequal, and within-state flows and counterflows were dissimilar in the characteristics of their migrants. The results suggest the need for additional analysis of the equilibrium hypothesis and premises about the net benefits of the turnaround for nonmetropolitan areas. (JHZ)