Labour’s plans to introduce VAT on private school fees is also pushing some wealthy families to move north of the border where their overall living costs will be lower, Mr Ewer said.
He added: “And if you move to Scotland and your children live here for three years before they apply to a Scottish university then they will not have to pay any tuition fees.”
The increase in internal migration to Scotland comes despite a tax raid by the SNP on higher earners. The SNP gained devolved powers to set its own income tax rates in 2017.
David Phillips at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the legacy of the pandemic is also at play. “People have sought more inside and outside space,” he said.
Centre for Cities analysis of 2022 data showed that people are most likely to move to Wales when they are student age; when they are in their early 30s; and aged between 55 and 64.
Anthony Breach, associate director at the Centre for Cities, said: “It seems to me that people are most likely to move to Wales from England to attend university, to start a family or to retire.”
Net internal migration out of Northern Ireland, which has a far smaller population than the other UK nations, fell to a three-year low of just 39.
The rise in internal migration will also partly reflect an increase in the overall population, which has swelled by more than 7.5m in the last 20 years.
Separate ONS data shows it was local authorities in city areas in England, such as Birmingham, the London Borough of Newham, Coventry and Nottingham, that saw the highest levels of net outwards migration, while Cardiff was the local authority that recorded the highest level of net inward migration in Wales.
However, these figures only represent movement in and out of local authorities and therefore do not necessarily represent movement between the different countries in the UK.