Title:	Managing Population Decline in Europe’s Urban and Rural Areas
Authors:	Gert-Jan Hospers · Nol Reverda
Keywords:	Rural Areas
Issue Date:	2015
Publisher:	Springer
Description:	The global population keeps growing. More than 200,000 people are born every day, with a pace of 150 babies a minute (Muenz and Reiterer 2007). In 2011, a milestone was reached: the world totalled 7 billion inhabitants, twice as many as in 1960. For the most part, approx. 90 %, this population explosion took or takes place in third world countries. Megacities primarily form in these countries, varying from Mumbai to Manila. Developing countries have a young and youthful population—carrying with it all the consequences. For instance, the Arab Spring in North Africa in 2011 was led by a relatively large group of well-educated youths. Simultaneously, many countries in the Westernised world have had to deal with population decline and ageing; the population declines and ages. Together with Japan, European countries, such as Italy and Germany, are the front-runners of population decline and ageing. The old continent is literally becoming old. Have the Europeans perhaps become too decadent to reproduce, like the American writer Laqueur in The Last Days of Europe (2007) noted? To be sure, the population of many European countries will continue to grow, but we also see differences in growth and decline within nation states. In particular towards the rural parts of countries we can detect population decline, ageing, and a decrease of young people. Population decline—also mentioned as demographic shrinkage, demographic shrinkage or depopulation—has become an accepted, even popular topic over the last couple of years. The popularity has become apparent, among others, by the growing number of consultancy and research agencies that concern themselves with this demographic decline. The reports, articles, and consultations that appear are generally about areas where the population decline is most obvious: housing, spatial planning, education, regional economy and healthcare and welfare, just to name a few. Are there enough care facilities in the area? Can the primary school and community centre stay? Is it possible to maintain the sporting facilities in the municipality? And what about social life? These are all justified questions in a situation of population decline. In the past, population decline was far from popular; nowadays, it is a term of great importance. Creative minds, urban planners, and architects especially like to talk about population decline as an opportunity. This embracement of depopulation is, of course, hardly representative of the entire population. The popularity of demographic decline is not accepted by everyone. In administrative circles, people especially tend to avoid using the word because it implicitly refers to vacancy, deterioration, and loss. Population decline gives the village, city, or region in question a bad image; it becomes a taboo—something not worth mentioning.
URI:	http://10.6.20.12:80/handle/123456789/53706
ISBN:	978-3-319-12412-4
Appears in Collections:	Population Studies

Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.