The large influx of migrant workers from rural to urban areas indicates that their social adaptation is an important issue in understanding China's urbanization. This article uses Coleman's capital theory to analyse data from the 2012 and 2014 China Labour Force Dynamic Survey (CLDS), conducting a multiple linear regression model to study migrants’ economic, living and cultural adaptations. The results are determined through analysis of the static and dynamic effects of different capital factors. The static analysis results show that social adaptation can be improved by increasing the accumulation of various types of capital, while the dynamic analysis results show that social adaptation is a dynamic process. Optimizing the allocation of the corresponding capital elements can speed up migrant workers’ social adaptation. Therefore, the government must prioritize measures to improve and optimize migrant workers’ capital factors and promote their social adaptation, which will in turn accelerate urbanization in China.

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