People with high education are more geographically mobile than people with lower education. Further, highly educated men are more mobile than highly educated women, and the man's education affects couples' migration propensities more than the woman's. This study examines whether the reasons for the higher migration propensities among highly educated people are the occupational characteristics and income commonly associated with high education. Further, the study examines whether the reason for the asymmetric effect of men's education relative to women's is that these occupational characteristics and income are unevenly distributed between men and women with similar educational levels. I studied dual‐earner couples, with common children, residing in Sweden in 1997–2006. Results from logistic regressions indicate that both men's and women's education are positively related to couples' migration propensities, and that men's education has a larger impact on migration than women's, before adjusting for income and occupational characteristics. A substantial portion of the increased risk of migration among highly educated people can be attributed to income and occupational characteristics. Also, to a large extent, the differential effects of men's and women's education can be explained by the different types of occupations held by men and women within the same educational level, as well as by gender differences in monetary returns from education. When adjusting for these differences, only very minor gender differences in the effect of education remain. Despite theories on gender ideology, which implies men's attributes would dominate migration decisions, occupational characteristics have similar effects for men and women. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.