Migration is an important factor for deciding the population of a particular place in addition to births and deaths. When a person is enumerated in census at a different place than place of birth or place of last residence, she/ he is considered a migrant.
This may be due to marriage, which is the most common reason for migration among females or for work, what is the case as generally among males, etc. It also happens that many return to their place of birth after staying out. To capture such movements of population, census collect information on migration by last residence which helps to understand the current migration scenario better.
In the Census 2011, total 12,71,221 persons enumerated outside the State were from the Odisha. Similarly, there were 8, 55,696 persons who migrated from other States were enumerated in Odisha.
As per Census 2011, the total population reported migrated in Odisha (enumerated in a particular place in Odisha but stating residence elsewhere) was 1,57,21,493 out of which 73,609 are from outside India. A total population of 1,44,88,013 was found to have migrated to other place of the State outside their own village/ town. The migration which happened to other place in the their own district is 1,11,48,402. A total of 33,39,611 people migrated to other district from their own district in Odisha. The total in-migration from other State was 8, 55,696.
Top three districts having maximum out of State populations are Sundargarh (1,57,758), Khordha (63,200) and Ganjam (57,303). Again, there are 1,67,377 people from Jharkhand, 1,64,699 from West Bengal, 129,371 from Chhatishgarh, 1,22,491 from Andhra Pradesh and 1,19,231 from Bihar residing in Odisha.
Persons from Odisha reside in almost 640 districts of India. The names of the districts and number of persons where more than 4, 000 persons from Odisha are residing, are given in the following table No 3.