State of the Nordic Region 2020 – Wellbeing, health and digitalisation edition

Abstract

Nordic co-operation has firm traditions in politics, the economy, and culture. It plays an important role in European and international collaboration, and aims at creating a strong Nordic community in a strong Europe.Nordic co-operation seeks to safeguard Nordic and regional interests and principles in the global com-munity. Shared Nordic values help the region solidify its position as one of the world's most innovative and competitive.

Welfare institutes in sparsely populated areas

“…Over recent decades, the development of eHealth solutions has increased as a response to these delivery challenges in remote areas (Roberts et al, 2010). While all the Nordic countries have national eHealth strategies with ambitious goals, the digitalisation of health and social care services proceeded relatively slowly until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (Lundgren et al, 2020a; see also Lundgren et al, 2020b).…”

“…Recent research has shown that there are several notable areas of inequality regarding health, wellbeing and living conditions, both between and within the Nordic countries. Particularly in many rural areas of the Nordic Region, the provision of welfare services is struggling to keep up with uneven demographic trends caused by an ageing population and outmigration of young people, which has, in turn, led to economic decline, recruitment difficulties and skills shortages (Lundgren et al, 2020b). The increasing proportion of older adults also gives rise to relatively high occurrences of non-communicable diseases and mental health issues in these sparsely populated areas (SPAs; Rygh and Hjortdahl, 2007;Roberts et al, 2010).…”

“…The increasing proportion of older adults also gives rise to relatively high occurrences of non-communicable diseases and mental health issues in these sparsely populated areas (SPAs; Rygh and Hjortdahl, 2007;Roberts et al, 2010). Regional differences regarding education, employment and income in the Nordic countries further exacerbate health and wellbeing inequalities between rural and urban areas (Lundgren et al, 2020b; see also Norlén et al, 2022). It is, however, important to bear in mind that the Nordic Region's rural areas are very diverse, and therefore drawing a simple distinction between urban and rural living conditions is not so clear cut (Lundgren et al, 2020b).…”

“…Regional differences regarding education, employment and income in the Nordic countries further exacerbate health and wellbeing inequalities between rural and urban areas (Lundgren et al, 2020b; see also Norlén et al, 2022). It is, however, important to bear in mind that the Nordic Region's rural areas are very diverse, and therefore drawing a simple distinction between urban and rural living conditions is not so clear cut (Lundgren et al, 2020b). The use of distance-spanning technologies in health care and social care has tremendous potential to increase rural citizens' access to welfare services, despite a clear urban/rural divide in digital infrastructure and the use of digital services (Lundgren et al, 2020a;Lundgren et al, 2020b).…”

Multiple meanings and boundaries of growth in shrinking regions in East and North Finland

“…Shrinkage is deep, firstly, because the economic downturn and deep unemployment due to structural changes has been a long time, even decades in some cases (Andreasson et al 2020;EC 2021;Makkonen et al 2022). Most are also demographically shrinking in terms of their population that are ageing and becoming increasingly centralised (Grunfelder & Roto 2013;Roto 2013;Jokinen & Cuadrado 2020). Centralisation manifests as growing urbanisation in regional centres and their surroundings, while extensive sparsely populated areas are shrinking (Helminen et al 2020).…”