182

News

Fewer Danes living in rural areas

Christian Wenande
April 15th, 2016


This article is more than 8 years old.

Increasing housing price disparity between rural and urban districts

More and more Danes in rural areas are packing up and relocating to the big cities, according to a new report by Nykredit bank.

The report showed that pretty much all larger cities in Denmark are experiencing population increases, while smaller towns and villages are haemorrhaging residents.

“It’s a very potent trend that clearly indicates that there are massive population changes taking place in rural areas,” Mira Lie Nielsen, a housing economist with Nykredit, told Finans.dk.

“The tendency to drift towards the big city life has increased in the years following the financial crisis and the new type of jobs that are largely city orientated. The industrial and agricultural jobs, which have traditionally been in rural areas, have been reduced dramatically in recent years.”

READ MORE: Danish housing market still going full steam ahead

Housing differences
From 2010-2016 the number of people in Copenhagen increased from 1,181,239 people to 1,280,371, while the populations in rural districts have dropped from 728,882 to 695,306 during the same timeframe.

In fact, 38 percent of all Danes live in Copenhagen or one of the other large cities in the country – a 6 percent increase in just six years.

The trend has also led to a considerable disparity in housing prices between urban and rural areas. A 140 sqm home costs on average 487,000 kroner in Lolland, but 5.2 million kroner in Gentofte.


Share

Most popular

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to receive The Daily Post

















Latest Podcast

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.”