Five large growth centres absorb population from countryside
By Timo Siukkonen
Mikko Vuorela, 29, a cellular biologist who lives in Oulu, vividly describes his family situation, which is confirmed by statistical research: “We came here for good. We don’t want to move anywhere. We enjoy life in Oulu. I have lived in at least 15 different places in Finland. When we bought half of a duplex in the Höyhtyä neighbourhood of Oulu, it became our home.
Vuorela’s family includes his partner Anna-Leena Keränen, 29, and their children, two-year-old Melli and seven-month-old Urho. They moved from Jyväskylä to Oulu in 2008 for Mikko’s work. Vuorela is completing his doctoral thesis at the Biocenter of the University of Oulu in a group of researchers headed by Professor Robert Winqvist. The group is studying the genetic factors linked with the emergence of breast cancer.
Positive sides in Oulu include the children’s grandparents, a public swimming pool, bicycle paths, short distances, and reasonable housing prices. The winter darkness was a problem in the first year, but in the second winter, they hardly noticed it. On the negative side is the damp sea wind that blows in the summer.
Oulu is one of the growth centres where people are increasingly concentrating in Finland. The others are the regions of Jyväskylä, Tampere, Turku, and Helsinki. They thrive, thanks to the universities in the cities, and the economic vigour that they show. After them come Kuopio and Vaasa and their environs, the Åland Islands, and the municipalities of Pedersöre, Luoto, and Lemi.
A study on recent and future developments in Finland’s regional structure, by Oulu University project researcher Johanna Hätälä, and Geoinformatics Professor Jarmo Rusanen was published in Helsinki on Friday.
The researchers noted that Helsinki itself is an area of slow, or possibly even receding population development. Consequently the growth that it feeds on comes from other parts of the Uusimaa region.
According to the findings, Finland’s other regions and municipalities belong to three lower groups. The researchers assume that population in sparsely populated areas will decrease further, and uninhabited areas will grow. People are settling in smaller and smaller areas.
What kind of development is desired? They answer their own question indirectly, saying that the topic is linked with regional policy. “If the aim is to keep the whole country inhabited, both rural areas and more densely populated areas should be kept occupied in a balanced manner.”
The writers say that concentrating habitation in a few growth centres will inevitably lead to a situation in which the regional structure of Finland will become more sparse and deserted. “Most at danger seem to be developments in Finnish Lapland, Kainuu, and East Finland.”
These areas lack the attraction of a sufficiently strong growth centre. The strength of Rovaniemi, Kajaani, or Joensuu is not sufficient.
The predictions take into account Finnish population growth, birth rates, migration patterns, and changes in habitation, going back in some cases to 1951.
Statistics Finland has collected the material onto a map of Finland filled with squares, representing one square kilometre each. When measured in such a manner, the total surface area of the most densely-populated part of Finland decreased in 1970-2007 by eight per cent, while the population grew by 15 per cent.
The population density per square kilometre declined in rural areas in that period from 15.4 inhabitants to 11.3 inhabitants, and that of built-up areas grew from 590 to 702.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 16.1.2010
TIMO SIUKONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
timo.siukonen@hs.fi
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| 19.1.2010 - THIS WEEK |
 Five large growth centres absorb population from countryside |
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