Policy Brief Management of Population and Migration in Nepal

Abstract

Introduction The constitution of Nepal has provisioned the shared responsibilities of population management to three tiers of government. Population management should make maximum utilization of demographic dividend which is linked with population distribution (1). A recent preliminary report of the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reveals that Nepal’s population grew by 0.93 percent annually on average, the lowest in the last 80 years, while the average population growth rate of the previous census was 1.35 percent (2). Nepal witnessed a decrease in overall population in two consecutive censuses in 1920 and 1930, and its population has been growing remarkably (3). In the last six decades, the country saw over two percent population growth in the first four decades. The population growth had started to decrease significantly since the 2011 Population census, according to the bureau’s records. Though international out-migration has also been touted as the reason behind the low population growth over the last decade and as per CBS, a total of 2.2 million Nepali living abroad currently (4). Ten years ago, a total of 1.9 million people were living abroad most of the time. The census also showed that Nepal’s international out-migrated population is not as large as it has been believed to be, though its effect has been well reflected in the national demographic structure.