Data movement between different cell regions in non-volatile memory

According to one embodiment, a memory system includes a non-volatile memory array with a plurality of memory cells. Each memory cell is a multilevel cell to which multibit data can be written. The non-volatile memory array includes a first storage region in which the multibit data of a first bit level is written and a second storage region in which data of a second bit level less than the first bit level is written. A memory controller is configured to move pieces of data from the first storage region to the second storage region based on the number of data read requests for the pieces of data received over a period of time or on external information received from a host device that sends read requests.