191 News
The Nordic Rural Youth Panel publishes 40 action points for making rural areas attractive for youth
Many rural municipalities are experiencing population loss as young people move away, without returning. Is there a way to attract young people to stay and move back to Nordic rural areas? Yes, if you improve public transportation, offer diverse housing options and dynamic educational opportunities connected to the local job market, says the Nordic Rural Youth Panel. There’s a belief among youth that success and a good life are only achievable by moving to a city, which can make rural places feel less valued. However, there’s a growing interest in changing this narrative and showing that rural areas are full of opportunities. To combat stagnation in Nordic rural areas, 25 young people from the Nordic Region came together in a Nordic Rural Youth Panel to discuss key solutions for making rural areas more attractive to youth. They offer concrete action points for policymakers and decision-makers in rural areas and push for changes that would make young people want to stay and build their lives there. “We believe their suggestions can play a part in bringing life and vitality back to these rural communities”, says Research Fellow Mari Wøien Meijer who has been leading the project at Nordregio. The Nordic Rural Youth Panel is calling for affordable and efficient public transportation, advocating for diverse and affordable housing options, and demanding dynamic educational opportunities with clear pathways to the local job market, including innovative remote work solutions. They also highlight the need for public spaces and activities that bring people together, helping to create strong community ties. The panel’s recommendations are unique and represent a great opportunity for policymakers to get first-hand information directly from young people. The young people themselves have been involved in setting the agenda from the beginning and have worked together on the themes and recommendations during several…
- 2023 November
- Nordic Region
- Demography
- Labour market
- Rural development
Housing market insights with an innovative approach
In a world where rural areas face increasing challenges and opportunities, it is essential to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics that shape these regions. Nordregio is a part of GRANULAR – an EU project aimed at informing rural policies, by providing evidence at a more granular level to inform and improve policies. One key dimension of rural development is the evolution of housing markets in rural areas. In remote regions in transition, like Norrbotten and Västerbotten in the northernmost territory of Sweden, where significant structural transformations are taking place due to ongoing green re-industrialization processes, understanding housing trends becomes crucial. These areas are anticipated to attract new populations and experience substantial changes in the housing market in the coming years. Web scraping to understand rural housing development trends To explore the housing markets in areas with limited publicly available statistics on housing markets, we tested an innovative approach to produce statistics: web scraping. Nordregio’s Senior researcher Carlos Tapia harnessed the power of the technique that mechanically gathers data from web pages. Web scraping involves using software to extract valuable data from online sources, including text, images, and tables. In GRANULAR, we use web scraping to study real-time property transactions using data from Hemnet, Sweden’s largest online housing marketplace. With around 200,000 homes listed on Hemnet annually, it provides a comprehensive sample of housing data in the country. These data help us understand local housing market performance in Sweden, especially in regions susceptible to external disruptions, and inform proactive responses to evolving challenges in these areas. The Process Data Collection: The initial step involved scraping data from Hemnet. The data collected includes property location, type, size, facilities, settlement dates, and price information. It’s a detailed snapshot of the housing market. Data Cleanup: Although rich in information, scraped data normally require…
- 2023 October
- Rural development