Selected rural growth in Estonia 1989–2000 – sub- or counterurbanisation?

Different analyses – different results.

 

Mare Ainsaar

 

Turku University

 

 

Abstract. There are different visions of the future of regional development in more advanced countries. Some researchers have seen the continuous concentration of popula­tion on certain areas as quite plausible development strategy; some support the hypothesis of future dispersal of population over wider areas. The few studies carried out on the 1990s and 2000s do not support either of these directions. For the first time after eleven years the population census data offered the possibility to get a reliable picture of population development and internal migration in Estonia. The paper gives the first overview about population change and the role of internal migration in it. The municipality level internal net migration is compared with economic and geographical background data. Results show that different data processing can lead to different results. The overall internal migration pattern supports the suburbanisation hypothesis.