The primary driver behind the exit

The full distribution for “What is the primary driving factor behind your desire to leave Kerala?” (n = 270) is: Low entry-level salaries and lack of major industries — 50.4% (136); Superior quality of education and research abroad — 30.4% (82); High moral policing and lack of lifestyle freedom — 15.2% (41); I do not want to leave Kerala — 4.1% (11).

The cohort is clearly concentrated on this question. A single option carries 50.4% of responses, so the headline figure is stable enough to plan against. The smallest recorded answer, I do not want to leave Kerala, still represents 11 people — a group large enough to matter in programme design even at 4.1%.

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.