Report Highlights Decline in Rural Population, Jobs
Over the past decade, 80 percent of rural municipalities saw their populations shrink and as many as 60 percent of rural dwellers now work in cities, a new agricultural development report by the Estonian University of Life Sciences has shown.
The report, which was presented in Tartu on November 8, revealed that only 12 percent of countryside residents were working in their own villages or their nearest townships in 2010.
The situation is drastically different from the early 1990s, when 56 percent of Estonia's rural population was employed in agriculture, forestry and fisheries. That figure has now dropped to 12 percent.
According to figures for last year, Estonia had 4,434 rural settlements, but 2,004 of them could not claim even a single employer.
One of the report's authors, Veiko Sepp, told ERR that while heads of rural municipalities are concerned with keeping up their population numbers, which determines the amount of tax revenue they receive from the state, they are less motivated when it comes to job creation.
The trend isn't universal, however, as jobs outnumbered residents in 391 settlements.
The report also noted a lack of availability of nearby high schools in rural areas, and that even in villages and towns that have high schools, young people often prefer to attend schools in urban areas.
Steve Roman
