Demography

Internal migration

Ophthalmology

Tourism

Archaeology

Economics

Development economics

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Economic geography

Geography

Demographic economics

Population

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Sociology

Globe

Medicine

Net migration rate

Economic growth

Population growth

Pandemic

Disease

Pathology

Population Space and Place

The COVID‐19 pandemic has affected economies, labor markets, health care, education and tourism around the globe in unprecedented ways. However, little research has yet been devoted to the impact that the pandemic might have had on internal migration. This study aims to address this gap by determining how the intensity and spatial patterns of internal migration changed between 2019 and 2020 in Germany. We draw on data from the population register on annual flows between 401 counties. We find that the COVID‐19 pandemic was associated with a 5% drop in the intensity of inter‐county migration in 2020 compared to the previous year, with significant variation across age. The pandemic was also associated with an upsurge in net migration losses for the largest cities, driven by fewer inflows of young adults and continuing outflows of families.

The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on internal migration in Germany: A descriptive analysis