Incomers and Locals in the European Countryside

Abstract

Europe is predominantly rural in terms of its territory but urban in terms of the number of its inhabitants. The overall demographic depletion of rural areas began to slow down considerably or was even reverted in many European countries in the 1960s and 1970s. Most frequently the rural areas ‘winning’ population have been those incorporated within functional urban regions. In Northern Europe international rural in-migration has – probably because of climatic reasons – played a less prominent role, although some Central Europeans have bought second homes in Scandinavia and some Swedish have taken up jobs in villages of neighbouring Norway, which are still hit by depopulation. Urban-rural migration has often been interpreted as a quality of life migration. Countercultural movements usually prefer the more peripheral areas, where it is easier to find a niche as land prices are still low and the regulatory influence of the states is usually less strong.