The final ESPON report on DEMIFER (Demographic and migratory flows
affecting European regions and cities – every EU project needs a good acronym!) was released in September. The project had quite an extensive remit as it sought to “assess the effects of demographic trends and migration flows on European regions and cities and to examine the implications for economic and social cohesion, taking into account the possible effects of climate change”.
The big factor in all this is the aging population and extent of immigration into the EU. The report models a variety of scenarios and finds that even under optimal conditions 35 to 40 per cent of all NUTS2 regions will see a decline in the size of the labour force from now until 2050. For all the various up-and-down scenarios of demography and immigration have a look at the final report and browse through the over 200 pages of maps in the related Atlas.