Residential migration in the Greater Paris - Grand Paris - Post health crisis trends

ThIs work was carried out within the framework of a partnership with the Paris, Versailles and Créteil Education Authorities, the School Planning Office of the City of Paris Department of Educational Affairs, the Ile-de France Family Benefit Office, Technical Think-tank and Decision-making Support Unit  (Ctrad), and the Ile-de-France Department of Insee. 

Whether it involve the entire population, households receiving social benefits or school children, a large majority (almost 9 out of 10 households) did not moved home at the end of the health crisis. Although the health crisis and the development of telework did not lead to a high increase in residential mobility, they did however have an important effect on the profile of households which moved and the areas where they moved to. 

The study shows that interdepartmental mobility remained in the majority while some contrasting changes in administrative Departments are highlighted. In Paris, internal migration amounted to 54.3% of household mobility in 2021 a rise of 1.7 points compared to 2017. During the same period, Hauts-de-Seine and Val-de-Marne recorded a drop in internal migration (respectively -1.4 points and -1.6 points) while Seine-Saint-Denis remained stable.

Even though the majority of residential moves covered short distances within a limited perimeter, certain trends, that were already underway before the health crisis, were maintained or even accentuated. Moves away to the provinces rose by varying degrees depending on the source of information. The population census data show a drop in net migration (the difference between arrivals and departures) which can essentially be explained by a rise in departures to the provinces. These moves were mainly made towards attractive areas in towns of more than 200,000 inhabitants and less towards rural municipal Communes, even though they have had slightly more households from Grand Paris Metropolis migrating to them than before. 

In terms of the profile of mobile households and how this has been changing, data on households receiving benefits show that over the course of 2021 residential mobility rose among all types of households, regardless of their family make-up and social position. However, people with no children remained the most mobile. Households with the lowest incomes moved shorter distances and mostly stayed in Grand Paris Metropolis. Many more middle income households left the Metropolis and moved to neighbouring Departments such as l’Oise, l’Eure and l’Eure-et-Loir. The study also reveals a break in trend for higher income families. While they used to favour moves to nearby areas, during the period under review, they were more inclined to leave Ile-de-France when moving, particularly those with younger children that had not started middle-school.

The most recent data, for 2022, show a return to trends comparable to those observed before the health crisis.