Population Changes in Rural Areas in Northern Sweden 1985-1995

During the 1990s most municipalities and rural areas in northern Sweden have experienced renewed depopulation. At the same time, many regional centres (mainly university towns), but also some rural areas, have shown significant population growth. This paper focuses on the latter rural areas and describes their geographical location and the socio-demographic characteristics of their populations. Three types of rural areas with population growth have been identified. Firstly, there are the rural areas within daily communing distance from a few regional centres. Secondly, there is a group of rural areas that has benefited from the tourist industry. Most of these tourist resorts are mountain villages close to the border with Norway. Finally, there are also a few rural areas characterised by attractive residential environments and leisure housing.This working paper by Örjan Pettersson is based on a paper presented at the PIMA98 conference in Aberdeen, Scotland (26-29 June 1998). The participation at the conference was supported by a grant from The Gösta Skoglund International Foundation. The paper has been published in proceedings from the conference (Gourlay, D. ed., 1999, Marginal Rural Areas in the New Millenium). An earlier version in Swedish, “Glesbygd i regionala kraftfält”, has been published in Westlund, H. ed., 1998, Regional utveckling i lokala och globala kraftfält.SIR-rapport 106