“Improving knowledge of these factors could help to design targeted place-based policies to support population levels, which could include ‘repopulation initiatives’ and improvements to the housing supply, infrastructure and services to improve economic links and lower barriers to migration.”

Social scientists at the James Hutton Institute have developed a novel method to estimate future demographic change in Scotland’s sparsely populated areas, by considering geographical differences in employment structures and regional economic linkages, among other factors, to produce estimates of future labour migration in different regions. Initial results have been produced for a ‘baseline’ scenario of future employment change but refining this and the model assumptions, following Covid-19 and Brexit, could offer valuable projections for remote areas.

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This article was originally posted by The James Hutton Institute