Changing Intensities and Spatial Patterns of Internal Migration in the UK

UK population censuses are an invaluable source of information that helps us to understand the redistribution of the population through internal migration. However, making comparisons between censuses, even those that are taken consecutively, is rarely straightforward. In this chapter, we use origin-destination flow data from the 2011 and 2001 Censuses at district level to illustrate the problems of comparison, generate an adjusted set of flows to enable consistent comparison and establish what changes are evident when using aggregate and age-group indicators of migration intensity and impact. The results suggest that intensities have fallen marginally overall and most significantly in the older age groups whilst changes in the impact of migration are most evident in the 15-19 age group. We use the IMAGE Studio to identify the effects of scale and zonation on three selected migration indicators.