Helsinki region gets younger as more older residents move elsewhere
|
|
|
The Helsinki region is losing many of its residents above the age of 55. Demographic researcher, Dr. Timo Aro, has noticed that the net decrease in members of the over 55 age group has exceeded 10.000, whereas the net gain of those in younger age groups is 27,500.
Helsinki’s share of the net loss of the over-55s in 2000-2008 was 5,692, and its share of the net gain of younger age groups ws 2,877.
“The information is new to me”, says Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen.
He sees the figures as being in line with certain trends.
“The old population of Helsinki is decreasing. We are getting a net gain from immigrants, most of whom are of working age, and therefore, younger than the over-55 age group.”
However, Aro did not include figures on immigration and emigration in the figures, they are not part of the country’s internal migration trends.
Aro says that the selective nature of the trend improves the competitiveness of the Helsinki region, by increasing the proportion of working-age residents to those who have retired.
Meanwhile, the increase in immigrants requires costly investments in services, such as day care centres.
Of all those who move out of the city, the proportion of seniors is relatively small. In the past decade, they have comprised between 5.5 and 7.6 per cent of those leaving the city.
In 2002 a publication put out by the University of Vaasa predicted that about 100,000 members of the baby boom generation might choose to move to rural areas. Aro says that there is no indication that anything like this might happen. However, some regions appear to be attracting more seniors than others.
Aro noted that migration patterns of seniors deviate from familiar patterns. In nationwide migration from one municipality to another in 2000-2008, only 20 out of 72 regions were net gainers, but the situation was the reverse with those over 55, with 53 regions gaining senior migrants, and 19 losing them.
Helsingin Sanomat
|
| 18.1.2010 - TODAY |
 Helsinki region gets younger as more older residents move elsewhere
|
|
