Income as a primary driver of South African inner city migration

Drivers of migration to the inner areas of the five largest South African cities are investigated using computational modelling based on survey data. The primary migration driver for South African cities is established to be the need to find work but this is related to income in terms of salary distributions. These distributions vary for the different cities and fall into two groups, those with a normal distribution and those that peak in a very low income bracket. The link between these distributions and 'attractiveness to move to a city' is considered using a simple model.

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Publication Details

Journal
Human Science Research Council SA
Published
2026-05-23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.14749/32381511
Primary Topic
Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Income as a primary driver of South African inner city migration

Human Sciences Research Council
Human Science Research Council SA
Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis
article

Income as a primary driver of South African inner city migration

Human Sciences Research Council
article en

Abstract

Drivers of migration to the inner areas of the five largest South African cities are investigated using computational modelling based on survey data. The primary migration driver for South African cities is established to be the need to find work but this is related to income in terms of salary distributions. These distributions vary for the different cities and fall into two groups, those with a normal distribution and those that peak in a very low income bracket. The link between these distributions and 'attractiveness to move to a city' is considered using a simple model.

Human Science Research Council SA
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis
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