Skip to content

Migration intent Research brief

67.7% intend to migrate out of Kerala

Migration is the baseline expectation in this cohort, not the exception.


Community Leadership and Social Change Program Research Scholars, Department of Graduate Institute, DHI University (DHIU), India · The Kerala Gen Z Report 2026, n = 399 · CC BY 4.0

Asked “Are you personally interested in or planning to migrate outside of Kerala for studies or a career?”, 67.7% of the 399 respondents in the Kerala Gen Z Survey 2026 (270 people) selected Yes, I am interested / planning to migrate. The next-largest answer, No, I intend to stay and build my career inside Kerala, accounts for 32.3% (129), a gap of 35.4 percentage points.

Key figures

  • 67.7% (270 of 399) answered Yes, I am interested / planning to migrate on “Are you personally interested in or planning to migrate outside of Kerala for studies or a career?”.
  • The top two answers are separated by 35.4 percentage points, and the smallest category still covers 129 respondents.
  • Findings describe this community-recruited cohort of 399 respondents, not Kerala's youth population.

Figures & data tables#

Figures are drawn directly from the primary response counts; each carries its full data table and an embed snippet.

Figure 1

Are you personally interested in or planning to migrate outside of Kerala for studies or a career?

നിങ്ങളുടെ പഠനത്തിനായോ കരിയറിനായോ കേരളത്തിന് പുറത്തേക്ക് (വിദേശത്തോ മറ്റ് സംസ്ഥാനങ്ങളിലോ) കുടിയേറാൻ നിങ്ങൾക്ക് താല്പര്യമുണ്ടോ അതോ പ്ലാൻ ചെയ്യുന്നുണ്ടോ?

n = 399 · Kerala Gen Z Report 2026 · Moyan AI

Yes, I am interested / planning to migrate67.7%

അതെ, എനിക്ക് താല്പര്യമുണ്ട് / പ്ലാൻ ചെയ്യുന്നുണ്ട്

No, I intend to stay and build my career inside Kerala32.3%

ഇല്ല, കേരളത്തിൽ തന്നെ തുടർന്ന് കരിയർ കെട്ടിപ്പടുക്കാനാണ് ഞാൻ ആഗ്രഹിക്കുന്നത്

Data table
Are you personally interested in or planning to migrate outside of Kerala for studies or a career?
ResponseCountShare
Yes, I am interested / planning to migrate27067.7%
No, I intend to stay and build my career inside Kerala12932.3%
Total answered399100%
Embed this figure on your site (free, CC BY 4.0)

Copy the snippet below. Keep the source link — attribution is the licence condition.

<iframe src="https://journal.moyanai.app/journal/embed/migration-interest" width="100%" height="420" style="border:1px solid #e5e7eb;border-radius:8px" title="Are you personally interested in or planning to migrate outside of Kerala for studies or a career? — Moyan Journal"></iframe>
<p>Source: <a href="https://journal.moyanai.app/journal/kerala-gen-z-survey-2026">The Kerala Gen Z Report 2026</a>, Moyan AI.</p>

Reading the distribution#

The full distribution for “Are you personally interested in or planning to migrate outside of Kerala for studies or a career?” (n = 399) is: Yes, I am interested / planning to migrate — 67.7% (270); No, I intend to stay and build my career inside Kerala — 32.3% (129).

The cohort is clearly concentrated on this question. A single option carries 67.7% of responses, so the headline figure is stable enough to plan against. The smallest recorded answer, No, I intend to stay and build my career inside Kerala, still represents 129 people — a group large enough to matter in programme design even at 32.3%.

What this brief does not establish#

These are self-reported answers from a community-recruited cohort of 399 young Keralites surveyed between 21 May and 28 June 2026. They are not probability-sample estimates of Kerala's youth population, and confidence intervals from random sampling do not apply.

Because 74.4% of respondents sit in one age band and 72.7% identify as male, subgroup differences are indicative at best. Cross-tabulated claims require a larger, stratified sample.

Finally, the survey measures single-point self-report, so it can establish association and scale but not direction or cause. Where this brief notes a pattern across two questions, that pattern is descriptive.

Questions readers ask#

Are you personally interested in or planning to migrate outside of Kerala for studies or a career?? (Kerala Gen Z Survey 2026)
67.7% of 399 respondents answered Yes, I am interested / planning to migrate, followed by No, I intend to stay and build my career inside Kerala at 32.3%. Full distribution: Yes, I am interested / planning to migrate — 67.7% (270); No, I intend to stay and build my career inside Kerala — 32.3% (129).
How many people answered this question?
All 399 respondents in the Kerala Gen Z Survey 2026 answered this item.
Can these figures be generalised to all Kerala youth?
No. The survey is a community-recruited cohort of 399 respondents surveyed between 21 May and 28 June 2026, so the figures describe this cohort rather than the state's youth population.

Source and reuse

Every figure in this brief comes from the The Kerala Gen Z Report 2026 response sheet. The full aggregate dataset, codebook and methodology are open: open data · methodology.

Cite this page

Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Attribution with a link back is the only condition.

Community Leadership and Social Change Program Research Scholars & Valakkulam, Y. (2026). 67.7% intend to migrate out of Kerala. Moyan Journal of Community & Society, Volume 1, Issue 1. Department of Graduate Institute, DHI University (DHIU), India; published by Moyan AI. https://journal.moyanai.app/journal/research/kerala-youth-migration-intent-2026

Reference manager

Open access. This work is published under CC BY 4.0. You may copy, redistribute, adapt and reuse the text, figures and data for any purpose, including commercially, with attribution and a link back.