Personality Differences among Life-Course Migrants and Stayers: Insights from International and Internal Migration between Cities, Towns, and Villages in Estonia

Although migration is often thought to be a selective process influenced by personality traits, the personality differences of different types of migrants and stayers have received limited empirical attention. Using N = 58,678 participants in the Estonian Biobank—covering approximately 4.2% of the national population—we examined Big Five trait differences across 18 groups of migrants and stayers, categorised by detailed migration directions (e.g., city to village, abroad to village). The ANCOVA analysis suggested that the differences were statistically significant but small: openness showed the largest variation across categories (SD range = 0.64), particularly among emigrants, while extraversion varied least (SD range = 0.20). Migration direction accounted for up to 1.29% of the variance in personality traits (η²), less than demographic factors such as gender and education. These observations suggested that Big Five personality traits were weakly associated with migration directions; most migrants and stayers show broadly similar personality trait levels. Therefore, we might not accurately predict people's personality trait level from their migration directions.