People are turning away from Norway’s “big cities,” but that doesn’t mean the area that threatens resettlement can fly the flag and turn off the aging alarm.
Not in the first place anyway.
Although digital work life, rising housing prices in megacities, and freedom during the pandemic speak in favor of regions, megacities still have a magnetic power.
Recent population statistics in Norway are nonetheless interesting for the counties. It appears that Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger and Tromsø all saw net migration in the second quarter of this year.
Oslo is the biggest loss of resettlement.
Admittedly, the capital saw greater internal migration than before, but the migration was even greater. The net transport losses for the capital this quarter have not been very large since 1997, despite the fact that Norway’s population is growing.
Arena Sunnmøre – Live broadcast on Thursday at 10:
More seniors and fewer young people are the future too in Sunnmøre
Population development is going well, pandemic or not, and it is important for municipalities to keep up with the changes. This is the theme of “Arena Sunnmøre” broadcast live from the Future Lab at NMK.
During the pandemic, there have been many stories about young people as well as moving from the city to a freer and calmer “in the country”. The digitization of working life and the closure of large cities have played their part.
Perhaps most important is the rise in housing prices.
The latest “Nurse Index” from Eiendom Norge shows that just over one per cent of Oslo housing units are within reach of funding for a single nurse. In Alesund, almost half of the housing stock can be achieved with a nurse’s salary.
County municipalities struggling with evictions face other challenges. Here, municipalities are striving to get enough health workers. However, low housing prices alone are not enough to reverse the migration trend. In some county municipalities, even low housing prices are an obstacle to new construction and resettlement.
In the future, the big city attracts more than the settlements.
Neither Larsnes nor Lipsoy won in the loss of moving to Oslo, but Lillstrom and Lorenskog. It is an urban area with slightly cheaper housing and a large population growth.
Thus centralization continued with great force. The isolated stories of young couples who have invested in goat pens and home offices in the village is unfortunately not a strong trend.
If the immigration shock is to go further in favor of the provinces, it requires political action.
Instead of moving the village to the city, we should bring the city closer to the village.
Then we must focus on developing regional centers, facilitating a better digital working life and making sure that building new homes in the village is not a risky sport.
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