City to countryside migration on rise in Georgia, new figures show

While almost one third of the total population of Georgia lives in the capital city of Tbilisi, new figures released by the Justice Ministry show an increasing number of people moving from cities to countryside locations.

Interpressnews reported on Thursday the numbers showed 76,030 individuals changing their residence from cities to villages between 2015 and October 21, 2022.

The statistics also showed most of them - 10,611 - had changed their registered address from urban to rural areas in 2019, an increase from 8,775 in 2015. They also pointed to 8,487 cases of changes in registered addresses from cities to villages between January to October 21, 2022 alone.

Photo: Ministry of Infrastructure

Throughout the past year, the highest number of changes were registered in August, when 1,057 residents switched their address to the countryside, with the smallest figure - 626 - coming in January.

The Georgian National Statistics Office’s latest census numbers showed a population of 3,728,600 throughout the country by January 1, 2021.

The figures also highlighted their urban-centred concentration, with 59.4 percent of the total population located in cities, with 1,202,700 individuals - almost a third of total residents - having Tbilisi as their address.