Parliamentary working group on sparsely populated areas 2020-2023

Goals and results

The task of the parliamentary working group is to promote the viability of sparsely populated areas.

According to the Government Programme, ‘an impact assessment will be carried out and an action plan including experiments to boost vitality and wellbeing will be drafted for areas with a declining population’. The parliamentary working group on sparsely populated areas will draft this action plan, and funding allocated to the working group will be used for the experiments included in it.

Summary

The task of the parliamentary working group on sparsely populated areas is to monitor the special questions related to these areas and to strengthen their viability. The work is based on the proposals of the previous working group appointed for the period 2017–2019 and on the measures concerning the development of sparsely populated areas in the Programme of Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Government.

Starting points

A significant proportion of Finland’s surface area, more than 68 %, is sparsely populated rural area, while just about 5 % of the Finnish population live in such areas. These areas are very important for the country because this is where most of the tangible and intangible resources of Finland’s natural environment are. However, there are also major challenges due to the long distances and sparse population. These include population decline and ageing that have continued for a long time, weakening of the dependency ratio, and concentration of services in just a few locations.

Sparsely populated areas also differ from each other. In some areas the number of jobs is decreasing, while in others it may be difficult for companies to recruit enough employees. The challenge may be the availability of skilled labour and mismatches on the labour market, as well as recruitment problems resulting from large numbers of people retiring. It should also be noted that the negative impacts of many political decisions are the strongest in sparsely populated rural areas.

The need to appoint a new parliamentary working group on sparsely populated areas was acknowledged when the previous group (2017–2019) submitted its final report on 11 October 2019. The task of the new group is to continue the work on promoting the viability of sparsely populated areas. The new parliamentary working group will draw up an action plan that will also present the experiments to be carried out by means of funding allocated to the group.

Additional information

• Harvaan asuttujen alueiden parlamentaarisen työryhmän toimintasuunnitelma