Correlates of Rural Out-Migration in Southern Ethiopia

Ethiopia is experiencing a high population growth rate (about 2.6 per cent per annum) mainly as a result of a high fertility rate (Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 5.9). Like in other developing nations, rural-urban migration is increasingly becoming a common phenomenon mainly as a direct response to environmental degradation and rural poverty. In this regard, some socio-economic and demographic correlates play a pivotal role in the out-migration of masses from villages. The study is based on primary data collected from 1,258 households selected from four of the most populous districts (zone) of southern Ethiopia. The study has employed a multivariate analysis (logistic regression) to estimate the socio-economic correlates of out-migration in Southern Ethiopia. While the dependent variable of the study is “whether at least one household member out-migrated during the past 10 years or not”, about eight important independent variables were regressed against the response variable. The rural out-migration in Southern Ethiopia is related to some noneconomic and economic factors, among which are lack of land, food insecurity, household size pressure, educational and religious status.