PUTRAJAYA, Aug 17 — The migration rate in Malaysia decreased to 0.5 per cent or 158,800 persons in 2022 as compared to 484,100 persons in 2020, according to the Migration Survey 2022 conducted by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM).

Commenting on the survey findings, Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin in a statement today said the implementation of the Movement Control Order to curb the spread of Covid-19 until the first half of 2021 has influenced the decline in migration rate.

He said intra-state migration composition increased to 62.3 per cent in 2022 as compared to 58.4 per cent in 2020, while inter-state migration declined to 30.3 per cent as compared to 31.2 per cent in 2020, and international migration decreased from 10.4 per cent in 2020 to 7.4 per cent in 2022.

The three states that recorded the highest percentage of intra-state migration in 2022 were Johor with 91.9 per cent, followed by Kedah at 72.9 per cent and Selangor at 71.9 per cent, while Negeri Sembilan and Perlis recorded the lowest at 38 per cent respectively.

"Intra-state migration by migration flow showed that migration from urban to urban remained the highest at 79.3 per cent followed by urban to rural at 14.7 per cent, rural to urban 2.4 per cent and rural to rural 3.6 per cent,” he said.

He said all states recorded higher movement from urban to urban areas in 2022, while Terengganu was the only state that recorded higher migration from urban to rural at 41.1 per cent compared with 10.6 per cent in 2020.

"Selangor recorded the highest movement of internal migrants with a total of 29,200 in-migrants. Most of the in-migrants to Selangor came from Johor with 1,400 persons and Kelantan 700 persons.

"Selangor also recorded the highest number of intra-state migrants at 26,500 persons, followed by Johor (22,400 persons) and Kedah (7,300 persons),” he said.

Mohd Uzir said the highest outflow of internal migrants was also recorded in Selangor at 37,200 persons, where the majority of out-migrants migrated to Negeri Sembilan with 3,500 persons and Kelantan 1,800 persons.

He said the demographic characteristics of internal migrations showed that the population aged 25 to 34 years has the highest internal migration rate in 2022 at 0.9 per cent, while the older population aged 65 and over, was the age group that migrated the least, at 0.1 per cent.

"Following family remained as the main reason for internal migration in 2022 at 47.3 per cent, followed by the environment factor at 19.3 per cent, career (18.3 per cent), marriage and divorce (5.7 per cent), education (5.4 per cent) and others (3.9 per cent),” he said.

The Migration Survey 2022 was conducted in 2022 for a reference period of 2021 to 2022. Migrants in the report refer to those whose usual place of residence is different at two points of time within a period of one year and do not include those who move within the same locality. — Bernama