Places facing demographic change can support high levels of well-being by leveraging local assets and matching services such as healthcare and education with population needs. Demographic change can also be an opportunity to promote social innovation, digitalisation, and new technologies for better service provision. Shrinking regions can reduce environmental impacts and contribute to meeting global environmental targets on biodiversity, climate change and the degradation of land.
Demographic change in regions and cities
Many places in the OECD face declining and ageing populations. This trend will continue. 14 OECD countries are expecting to lose population by 2040. In some regions this trend will be lasting and strong, with some projected to lose 20% or more of their population by 2050. Strong population shrinkage brings challenges that are best addressed at the regional and local level. For example, the costs of services and infrastructure provision rise per person, while quality and access risks declining. Affected regions typically struggle with labour and skill shortages, deteriorating real estate values, eroding tax bases and vacant buildings. The effects vary across regions: while people often migrate from rural to urban regions, some cities and towns are also affected by population decline. Local policies, delivered with national support, are necessary to foster well-being, economic and environmental sustainability. They need to cover government finances, infrastructure and service provision as well as multilevel governance.