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Vast majority of north Jutland towns shrinking

Christian Wenande
May 4th, 2015


This article is more than 9 years old.

Youngsters fleeing rural villages

Two out of every three towns in north Jutland have decreased in population over the past nine years, according to a new report by the radio station P4 Nordjylland.

It’s mostly the younger people who are abandoning the towns and villages and leaving them to the older generations. The exodus is presenting the municipalities with quite a challenge.

“There is less money available for investment and development,” Lea Holst Laursen, an associate professor at the Institute of Architechture at Aalborg University, told DR Nyheder.

“And that means that the municipalities need to address issues like school and kindergarten closures, along with basic things such as how many times snow should be cleared.”

READ MORE: Elderly increasingly isolated in rural areas

Elderly alone
A national report last year found that, of the almost 800,000 people residing in rural areas, one in five were over 65 years old.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”