Socio-Economic Factors Associated with Urban-Rural Migration in Nigeria: A Case Study of Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated socio-economic factors influencing movement of people from urban centres to rural areas in Nigeria with particular focus on Oyo State of Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was used to sample 160 migrants in rural areas for the study. Data were collected from the respondents using interview schedule. The principal results of the study reveal that most of the respondents left the urban centres for the rural areas because of their inability to secure jobs in the towns transfer to rural areas in their places of work retirement and high cost of living in the urban centres. Also the principal results show that there is a positive and significant relationship between lengths of stay of migrants in the rural areas and their ages (r = 0.442 p = 0.01). There are significant differences in the lengths of stay on migration by the single married widowed and divorced migrants since the calculated F-ratio (3.04) exceeds the tabulated F-ratio (2.74). It is recommended that government should encourage the drift of people to rural areas by making available such amenities that would encourage the stay of the migrants. This encouragement would enhance rapid rural development and bring the rural communities to the mainstream of national development. (authors)