New Delhi: The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) will conduct a comprehensive Survey on Migration during July 2026–June 2027, aiming to generate updated, granular data on the scale and patterns of movement across rural–urban and inter-state corridors, the government said on Monday.
The exercise, to be carried out by the National Statistics Office (NSO), will capture reasons for migration, return and seasonal migration, and the employment profiles of migrants, among other indicators. Officials said the findings would feed into policy design across urban planning, housing, transport, employment generation, social security and skill development.
India’s most recent official snapshots of migration came from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the Multiple Indicator Survey for 2020–21. Those estimates pegged the overall migration rate at 28.9%, underscoring the scale of internal mobility in the economy.
The same PLFS round showed sharp gender differences: at the all-India level, migration stood at 10.7% among men and 47.9% among women, with marriage accounting for about 86.8% of female migration, while job-related moves formed the largest share for men at 22.8%.
The upcoming survey is expected to update these baselines at a time when labour markets are being reshaped by post-pandemic shifts, infrastructure build-out and changing urbanisation patterns. Economists say better visibility into corridors, durations and outcomes of migration can help states calibrate housing supply, transport capacity and welfare portability, while also improving estimates of remittance flows and seasonal workforce needs.
The government said the new dataset will provide policymakers, planners and researchers with evidence to design more targeted interventions, particularly for cities absorbing inflows and districts that see sustained out-migration. The announcement was made in Parliament by MoSPI minister Rao Inderjit Singh.