A ₹35,000 entry salary does not reverse the exit

The full distribution for “Would you confidently choose to stay in Kerala if entry-level salaries in your field reached at least ₹35,000/month?” (n = 270) is: Yes, absolutely — 52.6% (142); No, I would still migrate for a better global lifestyle — 30.7% (83); Neutral / Undecided — 16.7% (45).

The cohort is clearly concentrated on this question. A single option carries 52.6% of responses, so the headline figure is stable enough to plan against. The smallest recorded answer, Neutral / Undecided, still represents 45 people — a group large enough to matter in programme design even at 16.7%.

“What is the primary driving factor behind your desire to leave Kerala?” (n = 270) returns: 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).

Placed beside the primary figure, this measure shows a majority position — 50.4% on low entry-level salaries and lack of major industries — which is the more reliable of the two anchors here. Read together, the two questions describe migration intent as a pattern reported across the cohort rather than an issue confined to a minority of respondents.

The sample is a community-recruited cohort of 399 respondents surveyed between 21 May and 28 June 2026. Figures describe this cohort; they are not state-level prevalence estimates and should not be reported as such.

The composition of the sample also shapes the totals: 74.4% of respondents fall in the older student and early-career band, and 72.7% identify as male. Any reading by gender, district or occupation needs disaggregated fieldwork this instrument was not designed to deliver.

The instrument records one moment in time, so nothing here identifies a cause or a trend. Statements about mechanism in this brief are interpretive and flagged as such.