Between the years 2010 to 2015, the United Nations reported that Andorra had the largest population decline in the world, at -3.61%. Our analyses showed that the population decline is unevenly distributed throughout the country. In addition, people do not always report the change of their residence (see also Sjöberg & Tammaru, 1999). Between 2000 and 2010 they lost on average –3.7% of their population. Since the 1990s, Lithuania lost almost a quarter of its population, and some regions within the country lost more than 50% of their residents. By closing this message, you are consenting to our use of cookies. Many regions, whose growth had been stimulated during the Soviet period by providing jobs in low-tech industry, suddenly became unable to provide a sufficient level of employment and standard of living under a market led neo-liberal economic system. To our surprise, 990 persons moved into ‘loosing’ regions and 615 moved into ‘winning’ regions. We found an opposite relationship for the rest of the country. Population decline can be seen almost everywhere in the country, except in the suburban areas around the major cities. To summarize, the multinomial models shows that younger, better educated Lithuanians and singles were most likely to move out from rapidly declining regions. Re-examining self-reported reasons for desiring and making residential moves, Demographic shocks after communism: Eastern Germany, 1989-93. Net migration was also negative at –2,614 … The extreme population decline in some regions of Lithuania and the growth of population in others can be expected to result in increasing regional differences. The main focus is on understanding who lives in the most rapidly declining regions and who is most likely to leave these regions. This paper provides empirical evidence of selective migration and increasing regional disparities in Lithuania. "What is the most worrying, it is the decreasing number of people of reproductive age. The decrease in Lithuania's population in 2000-2013 was the most pronounced across the European Union (EU), says director of the Institute of Human Geography and Demography Vlada Stankūnienė. The results show that at the time of the census (2011), people who rent a house were most likely to have moved and those who are still in the declining regions were most likely to own (however, we do not know the ownership status before the move). 3099067 The population of Lithuania increasingly concentrates in the major MAs,5 although the total population of these areas also dropped by 6.2% between 2001 and 2011. Lithuania has a long tradition of emigration and population decline. So the effects of time-varying variables such as education, occupation and household status should be interpreted with caution. The self-reinforcing effects of population decline: An analysis of differences in moving behaviour between rural neighbourhoods with declining and stable populations, Transformation in Central European postsocialist cities (G. Enyedi, Ed. It records the current place of residence and the previous place of residence if the person has moved inside Lithuania, but the exact timing of migration cannot be observed. Distribution of migrants according to the population change in the region of destination. Poverty is centered in rural areas. 1. We use cookies to improve your website experience. Latvia lost over a quarter of its population (27%), Lithuania 23%, Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina 21%. Lithuania has been facing demographic issues for more than a decade, with emigration challenges particularly pronounced in the country. Such a sharp … Sparsely populated areas almost fully coincide with rapidly declining regions, which are the focus of this paper. Only 10 years earlier, in 2001, the same regions inhabited on average 2270 people with a population density of 41 persons/km2. The probability to move over longer distances also highly depends on socio-economic status; it is much lower for individuals with a weaker labour market position (Fratesi & Percoco, 2014). The population of the entire EU increased by 1.1 million people (+2.1‰) during 2018 with the population increasing in eighteen EU Member States and decreasing in ten. In a quarter of a century, since the early 1990s, Lithuania lost more than one-fifth of its residents (a rapid decrease from 3.7 million in 1989 to 2.9 million in … This shows evidence of an increasing polarization within Lithuania. This age group only makes up about 36 percent of the entire Lithuanian population. The war brought even bigger human losses. Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab. On the other hand, although Stockdale (2004) identifies rural out-migration as a ‘loss of human and social capital’, she emphasizes the positive side of migration as mobile individuals can enjoy opportunities that would otherwise not be available to them. Latvia’s population has steadily decreased from a peak of 2.66 million at the end of Soviet rule, to 2.38m in 2000. There were 3342 reference persons younger than 18 years in Lithuania; they were excluded from the analysis. Therefore, it can be expected that the effect of ‘brain drain’ eventually leads to an overrepresentation of low-educated, low-skilled and unemployed people in shrinking regions. 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The aim of this study is to obtain more insight into the recent processes of socio-spatial change and the role of selective migration in Lithuania. The highest rates of depopulation were recorded for the rural and peripheral areas of Lithuania; meanwhile, population increases could be observed in the regions directly surrounding the major cities. Second, we use individual-level data and run a set of binary logistic regression models to explore further the differences between the residents of the rapidly declining regions and the rest of the country. Typically, a moving decision is made by households and not by individuals. Although the general trend is very similar between the two directions of migration, those who move to ‘winning’ regions are relatively younger. They appreciated the natural environment, the peace and quiet, and the geographical location of their places of residence. The results presented in Table 1 also imply that the demographic and economic capacity is running low in the rapidly declining regions, which could lead to a declining quality of life. 6. Population decline in Lithuania: who lives in declining regions and who leaves? The focus of this research is on the most declining regions in Lithuania, where the population dropped by more than 20% between 2001 and 2011. Such developments make a region even less attractive to the people who are left behind and increase their probability to leave as well. This process of selective migration reinforces the negative downward spiral of declining regions. This can be explained by the fact that ethnic minorities are mostly concentrated in the cities, and especially in the Vilnius city-region (Ubarevičienė, Burneika, & van Ham, 2015). The total population decline unevenly affected regions within Lithuania and as a result regional differences increased. 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