Among people living in rural areas or remote areas, relatively few had moved within their area type. At the 2006 Census, around 6 percent of people living in rural areas with high or moderate urban influence, or in remote areas, had moved within these areas since the 2001 Census. By contrast, around 30 percent of the population living in rural areas with high or moderate urban influence had moved from other area types. Three-quarters of movers to rural areas with high urban influence had moved from a main urban area between 2001 and 2006.
Figure 3
Moving within an area type is a common phenomenon among young workers, but there were differences in terms of the age groups where the moves most frequently happened. At the 2006 Census, most movers who had stayed living in main urban areas were aged from 25–44 years, whereas most movers within rural areas with high urban influence were older (35–49 years), and had moved with children (under 15 years old). Movers within rural areas with high urban influence had an older age structure than movers within rural areas with low urban influence. This shows that a significant proportion of the population living in rural areas with high urban influence work in main urban areas, so the working population living in these areas are likely to move to suit the work locality.