News Updates

28 – Regional Movers Index

06 February 2023

The City to Country movement post-pandemic…

What the Regional Movers Index told us

The City to Country movement post-pandemic… Record levels of demand for workers in regional areas have been reported over the past 2 years by the RMI, with the biggest group of vacancies being professional roles. Regional migration decreased from record levels seen in 2020 & 2021 when the RMI looked at data from the start of the last quarter (Sep 2022) for the 12 months prior.

The RMI reported 23.9% fewer regional moves, but this figure is still nearly 70% higher than the levels we saw pre-pandemic. On average, quarterly capital cities to regional area relocations accounted for 6% of all Australian moves over the past 12 months. This is on par with COVID lockdown periods and is higher than pre-pandemic (up by 0.7%). As 2022 progressed, the number of capital cities to regional area relocations declined, falling from 6.4% in the March 2022 quarter to 5.6% in the latest September 2022 quarter.

Migration flows in the other direction picked back up once severe capital city lockdowns lifted. Regional people moving into capital cities accounted for 4.4% of all relocations during the September 2022 quarter. While regional to capital city relocations was less than in the previous quarter it is higher than the 4% share that prevailed during the height of lockdowns. While we are seeing the spike of moves from city to country lessen, many people are still looking to regional areas to balance lifestyle and career.

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