Russian Periphery is Dying in Movement: A Cohort Assessment of Russian Internal Youth Migration Based on Census Data

Abstract

In this paper we study youth migration in Russia at the sub-regional level of administrative division. The aim of the research is to assess the volume of internal youth migration. The task is only doable with the use of census data, which not only allows us to research at the sub-regional level, but also provides much more accurate information on youth migration than the current migration record does. We used the survival method to study sub-regional population dynamics. As mortality is quite insignificant at young ages, most of the change in cohort size is caused by migration. Our estimates show that during the last intercensus period (2003-2010) up to 70 percent of youth cohorts have left the regional periphery for good after graduating from school, and there was no significant return to the demographically depleted periphery in the young working ages.