More than 54,000 millennials have made the move to regional Australia according to Regional Australia Institute (RAI) figures.

The data shows about 37,000 millennials, those born between 1982 and 1996, left the regions between 2011 and 2016 but more than 57,000 moved into those areas in the past five years.

RAI chief executive Liz Ritchie says people are returning to the regions in large numbers and it isn’t just a pandemic led change.

“You can-not understate what I describe as a societal transformation,” she says.

Victoria dominates the shift, having nine of the top 20 millennial relocation hotspots.

These were the Surf Coast, Moorabool, Mitchell, Bass Coast, Golden Plains, Mansfield, Baw Baw, Indigo and the Macedon Ranges.

Although the biggest area for millennials to move to was Bridgetown-Greenbushes in Western Australia.

In New South Wales the leading areas for millennials to relocate were Yass Valley and Maitland while in Tasmania it was Sorrell, Clarence and Glamorgan.