Längs Riksväg 92 : Kommunala förhållningssätt och strategier utifrån en förändrad befolkning

The Swedish municipalities are continually changing their population, both in size and composition. Regardless of the change it affects the conditions for achieving a balanced economy and the residents’ need for welfare. Today half of the municipalities are increasing versus reducing, which is a huge challenge. The purpose of the study is to describe the population development between four neighboring municipalities in Västerbotten, from the center to the periphery. Furthermore, examine how they have handled the population change and which geographical connections exist between the municipalities based on the choice of growth and adaptation strategies from Syssner (2014). The municipalities are Umeå, Vännäs, Bjurholm and Åsele. This study is based on population statistics since 1983 and the annual presentation from 2017. The result is that all municipalities have more or less choice to use strategies linked to growth and adaptation. It’s mainly Umeå who invests in growth-generation measures and Bjurholm who invests the most in different kinds of adjustments. This geographical distribution does not correspond completely with The first law of geography by Tobler (1970). Something that might affect the distribution of strategies is the need for independence, which is higher for Åsele than Bjurholm. Which means that Åsele can’t rely on a larger city like Umeå in the same way. But something that corresponded well with Tobler (1970) was that municipalities that are geographically closer tend to relate to population change in a certain way and invest in certain types of measures compared to municipalities that are located further away. It means that Umeå and Vännäs or Bjurholm and Åsele are more equal than for example Umeå and Åsele