The grass is greener on the other side

There’s always room for improvement, but the recent “Report on the state of the Nordic region 2013”, 94 pages compiled by a group of researched coordinated by Nordregio, a research institute specialized in regional studies, deserves admiration, coupled by a certain degree of envy for an area of the world where life seems to be much easier. Or at least, this seems true in those sectors addressed in the survey: demography, employment and labour, education, economic development, crisis management and ecology. The comparison is between Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden inclusive of the Far Oer island, Greenland and the Aland Islands, with their respectively underlined specificities, non-secondary territorial differences, and the comparison with EU data and benchmarks. More children, less migrants, more old people. 26.1 million are residents of these countries, today distributed throughout the Nordic region, 1.6 million more than in 2002, an increase of 40% above the EU average (0.63% per year versus 0.38 in the EU%). Much of the population growth is due to immigration (0.40%, i.e. to 1.1 million immigrants), the rest is due to positive birth rates, ranging from 1.73 children per woman in Denmark to 2.04 in Iceland, compared to an EU average of 1.57. Growing divide is registered in larger urban centres and rural areas experiencing increasing depopulation (for example in Finland). Population ageing (amounting to 2.8% over the past 5 years) follows the pace of the rest of Europe, although there has been an increase in the so-called “age-dependancy ratio”, measuring the number of young and the number of elderly people at an age when both groups are generally economically inactive, (i.e. under 15 years of age and aged 65 and over), compared to the number of people of working age. According to the findings the ratio is 28%, (it was 24% in 2002). Although older people today are healthier and richer the lack of support in certain regions is to be expected in the near future, while today there is the need to activate “more inclusive and simplified” policies today to facilitate for example the access of immigrants into the labour market and their integration into society, to engage them not only in low-skilled jobs (fishing, mining and quarrying). Employment levels are good. All Nordic countries register higher employment rates than that of EU28 (currently at 64.1%). A large population bracket is in employment, with among the highest numbers of employed women. Even in this area regional disparities do exist, and the 75% threshold set as 2020 target by the EU is yet to be reached. However the average today in Nordic countries is 72.8% (72.5% women and 74.6% are men). Iceland is at 79%, Norway 76%, Sweden and Denmark approximately 72%, Finland 69.4%. The answer to the problems of unemployment (which for Sweden and Finland primarily affects young people, while Denmark registers pockets of “long-term unemployed”) lies in “labour market measures, i.e., retraining, internships and support in the start-up of new businesses. Another measure adopted by Nordic countries in terms of unemployment are the “compensations for illness or inactivity”, involving 6.7% of unemployed citizens. Effects of global recession. “These countries have recovered better than the EU average”, the researchers write, interpreting the figures as the end of the tunnel for Nordic countries. The worst year was 2009, when the gross domestic product was flickering: Finland 8.5%, Iceland 6.6%, Denmark 5.7%, Sweden 5%, Norway 1, 9%. Since 2010 the trend has started to reverse, but the labour market is still striving to recover fully, while consequences drag on in terms of poverty and social exclusion, especially in major metropolitan areas. Education, green growth. Also higher education trends are on the increase, from 20% in 2002 to 25-30% in 2013. The reason seems to lie in the fact that innovation is considered a key feature of competitiveness, and those with higher education qualifications are better equipped to face an economic system that requires knowledge, the engine of innovation. Proof of this is also the fact that in regions with college towns the economic situation is better than in those without university centres, people tend to remain and invest in the region where they have studied. It was thus decided to set up high-level schooling institutions and universities across the country. Striking figures regard innovation and the average expense for research & development, representing 3% of GDP (the EU average is 2%). The strategic decision to transform green growth in a national strength, with positive results in terms of domestic consumption and resources (saving on electricity) and in the international market of “green” commodities and services is equally impressive.