This thesis examines counterurban migration in Sweden by linking individual outcomes, regional labour market dynamics and long-term settlement patterns within a multi-scalar framework. It focuses on a specific form of counterurban migration defined as movements from the metropolitan regions of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö towards smaller settings across the urban hierarchy. Drawing on an evolutionary framework of variation, selection and retention, the analysis conceptualises migration as a process through which variation in populations, and in their associated skills, experiences and preferences, is introduced into regional systems, selectively integrated within existing structures, and retained over time. The findings suggest that counterurban migration contributes to gradual and context-dependent forms of regional adjustment rather than abrupt transformation, with outcomes shaped by the interaction between individual motivations, labour-market conditions and the spatial organisation of regions. Counterurban migration is most strongly represented in the regions surrounding the metropolitan areas, particularly among younger and middle-aged adults with relatively strong socioeconomic profiles, indicating a gradual spatial redistribution of population and capabilities rather than a marginal detachment from previous lives and networks. Intermediate and accessible regions, especially mid-sized towns and their surrounding commuting areas, emerge as particularly important settings, combining lifestyle advantages with continued access to broader labour markets and stronger prospects for long-term retention. In this sense, migration is understood as part of an ongoing process that challenges a simple trade-off narrative by showing that individuals may simultaneously achieve improvements in both work-related and lifestyle-related outcomes,while regions may also benefit through the incorporation of incoming capabilities, skills, repertoires and practices. More broadly, the findings suggest that individual trajectories and regional structures co-evolve over time through processes of selective retention, highlighting the importance of viewing mobility not merely as population redistribution, but as one mechanism through which regional development and settlement systems are continually reshaped.