The Up and Down Migration at Various Life-Course Stages: Russia Case Study

Population, Space and Place. 2025. Vol. 31. No. 6. Article e70088.

Liliya Karachurina, Nikita Mkrtchyan

The paper explores the age‐specific vertical migration in Russia. Vertical migration is understood to be the population resettlement up and down the urban hierarchy–from small villages at the bottom, to large urban agglomerations (megapolises) at the top. The objective is to replicate the approach of Plane and others using the life‐course perspective within the context of Russia. The analysis relies on long‐term internal migration statistics at the level of individual settlements (2011–2020 years). We identify 9 levels of the urban hierarchy–ranging from the largest cities to the smallest villages. Cities, together with their suburbs, are considered as units. Accordingly, if a city is attractive to migrants, its suburbs become attractive too. The results of our analysis show that upward vertical migration is predominant in Russia. The population continues to concentrate at the upper levels of the urban hierarchy, while the lower levels (rural settlements) are rapidly losing population. This observation is true for all age groups. We believe that such centripetal migration, observed across all age groups, is specifically a Russian phenomenon. Also, most migration patterns have high demographic effectiveness, and that ‘jumping’ migrations, skipping over several levels, are more typical than movements between adjacent urban hierarchy levels.

Keywords: internal migration, age, centre, urban hierarchy, suburbs, a settlement

Publication based on the results of: Demographic situation analysis and projections for the Russian Federation. Development of recommendation on population and migration policy (2025)