The population of Lapland's tourism municipalities will increase in the coming decades. According to Statistics Finland's population forecast that extends until 2045, the biggest winner is Kittilä. There, the number of inhabitants increases by more than 800 inhabitants, which is relatively the most in Lapland.
According to the mayor, the new elementary school completed in Kittilä church village is an example of good basic services that attract new residents. Photo: Kati Rantala / Yle. Annu Passoja
Inari, Muonio, Kolari and Rovaniemi will also increase their population. In all these municipalities, tourism brings jobs and visibility. Rovaniemi's population would be over 70,000 in the 2040s.
The brightest prospects are in Kittilä, where the population is predicted to grow by 11 percent by 2045. The municipal director Timo Kurula says that the municipality has received a moving profit when many people who came to remote work during the corona virus decided to stay in their holiday homes.
In the village of Sirka, there are a couple of thousand people who live in a leisure apartment all year round. Apartments are often better equipped than detached houses.
The mayor is upset by the bureaucratic loophole, due to which those who live in a vacation home year-round are registered in the population information system as those without a permanent home. According to Kurula, logging makes it difficult to get banking services, for example.
We have worked to influence the parliament so that this could be changed, but we are not listened to.
To ease the housing shortage, the municipality has built apartments in the church village and, according to Kurula, plans to build them in Levi as well. The housing shortage is the most acute concern. Instead, there are enough school places thanks to the new elementary school in the church village, which cost 20 million.
Population growth in other tourism municipalities is also based on migration gains. The birth rate, on the other hand, is lower than the death rate in every municipality in Lapland.
Relatively, the largest population loss occurs in Posio, where the number of inhabitants drops by a quarter in 20 years.
According to the forecasts, a large drop is also expected in Ranua, Kemijärvi and Kemi. Kemi's population will drop by three thousand. However, there are no more municipalities falling into the category of less than a thousand inhabitants, along with Pelkosenniemi and Savukoski.
In the coming decades, Finland's population growth will be concentrated in the capital region and Pirkanmaa. According to forecasts, the biggest population losses will occur in Kainuu, Kymenlaakso and Etelä Savo.
Statistics Finland's population forecast is based on the assumption that 40,000–50,000 more people immigrate to Finland every year than leave Finland.
The birth rate, on the other hand, remains low. In 2035, there would be jaust 18 municipalities left in Finland where more people are born than die.
Source: Yle
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