Distance of Internal Migration in Modern Russia

This work is devoted to the study of the range of migration within the Russian Federation for the entire population, its individual age groups, as well as temporary labor migration. The data sources were unpublished data from the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) on interregional migration and data of Rosstat territorial agencies on intraregional migration, data of the Russian Census 2010, data of the Population surveys on employment issues (PSEI) / the Labor Force Surveys (LFS) for 2014 and 2017, as well as a matrix of distances between regions and between separate municipalities within certain regions of the Russian Federation. These data made it possible to make the first attempt to calculate the distance of migration in Russia considering intraregional movements, as well as to calculate the range of inter-regional migration for some age groups and other forms of mobility (labor migration) for the first time. Due to the availability of data on intraregional migration in a limited number of regions, the values of the distance of intraregional migration in Russia as a whole were simulated. Due to this, the analysis of the average range of migration included previously unaccounted movements within the regions, which allowed to calculate the values for the entire population of the country. The average range of interregional arrivals and departures by separate age groups – entrants (17-19 years), graduates (22-24 years), active working age (25-49 years), pensioners and pre-retirement age (50 years and older), is calculated and analyzed as well as for labor migration with different frequencies of labor trips. It is shown that the frequency of trips and the distance between the place of permanent residence of employees are closely related: the fewer trips are made, the greater the distance of these trips are. The work gives empirical evidence of the relationship between migration and distance, described by E. Ravenstein. The structural features of the distribution of migrants depending on the distance between inter-regional migration and migration, considering intra-regional movements, are compared. Also, the main regularities in the change of regional values of the migration range are identified