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Europe’s Rural Demography

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International Handbook of Rural Demography

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Population ((IHOP,volume 3))

Abstract

Despite being the hearth of mass urbanization, Europe still possesses a substantial rural population, whether the latter is measured on the basis of non-urban settlements or the characteristics of larger statistical areas. Moreover, on the latter definition, there are many parts of rural Europe that have been gaining population in recent years, notably in the western as opposed to the eastern half and close to metropolitan centres rather than in more remote regions. The chapter goes on to show that, while natural-change differences help to explain the weakness associated with both remoteness and a post-socialist context, migration is the dominant driver of regional diversity across rural Europe. The following two sections therefore deal respectively with rural out-migration, especially the exodus of young adults, and rural in-migration, including the contribution of retirees, the non-elderly and international labour migrants. The concluding section discusses the policy implications and suggests an agenda for future research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK

    Anthony Champion

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  1. Anthony Champion
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Correspondence to Anthony Champion .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Sociology , Anthropology and Social Work, Kansas State University, Waters Hall 202D, Manhattan, 66506, Kansas, USA

    László J. Kulcsár

  2. , Community and Environmental Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Linden Drive 1450, Madison, 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    Katherine J. Curtis

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Champion, A. (2012). Europe’s Rural Demography. In: Kulcsár, L., Curtis, K. (eds) International Handbook of Rural Demography. International Handbooks of Population, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1842-5_7

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