Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago

correctiv.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 100 posts

Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago

#71

Post by squishington »

muzani wrote: post #53

Something strange happens when people get wealthy and advanced enough. Cost of living rises, workload increases, it becomes unaffordable to have kids. 30 years later, everything is empty. Places like Australia have plenty of land but, nah, everyone wants to live urban where housing prices are insane or inherited. Food costs often go down in developed countries, cheaper than developing ones. Maybe they're so low that…

I grew up in regional Australia. All of my friends from there moved to the city because they wanted careers. Myself included. My friend who stayed there still works in farming and lives just above the poverty line, and can't compete for a rental so he lives in a shack in a paddock. House prices there also became ridiculous after the pandemic.

Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago

#72

Post by yokaze »

yokaze wrote: post #65
Mashimo wrote: post #56

Odd, why has Hamburg and Berlin stayed the same population in the last 30 years?

City states. The borders are administrative and hard to change, so people living in the "suburbs" live not only in a different city, but a different state.

Missed the other part. Why does the density doesn't not improve in the city states?

More and more people want to live in the city, as you can see in the skyrocketing rents, but they do not want to

- build higher

- build more dense (in particular, keep the green areas)

Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago

#73

Post by yoz-y »

TkTech wrote: post #62
yoz-y wrote: post #6

Not enough software engineers converting to farming? Shocking. If anything else, for me the main issue in France is the dearth of doctors in rural areas. So even the romantic idea of retiring in quaint village is predicated on not getting sick.

> Not enough software engineers converting to farming? Shocking. I kinda have to disagree with this. Sure, there's not a lot of software engineers grabbing a hoe and moving to a quiet rural farming village. But oh boy is there a lot of money being a software engineer working on farming. I'd have to say more software engineers are working in agriculture today than ever before - it's one of the reasons why the rural ar…

Clarkson’s farm did have a section about this. That said, you know what I meant.

I have several burnt out friends who went “farming” and I assure you, programming combines and drones is not the thing they meant by going away.

Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago

#74

Post by johanvts »

Flaiming wrote: post #17

There are definitely some data missing, because in Czechia where I live there are some areas on the map with 100% decline in population like Libavá and Březina, which definitely have some population. I don't know about any village that would be totally de-populated. https://obyvateleceska.cz/olomouc/libava/503941

Classic null being replaced by 0.

Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago

#75

Post by jillesvangurp »

Towaway69 wrote: post #41
jillesvangurp wrote: post #29

Some countries have really high housing prices and housing scarcity right on a border with another country where this isn't the case. You can get 30-40% differences just by moving a few km on the borders of the Netherlands. The reason this isn't that popular is that by moving like that you get to deal with different jurisdictions and tax systems. Particularly the social systems different countries have are very diffe…

> It enables working or relaxing while you commute If everyone is on the road, be it "autonomous" or not, then the net result will be traffic jams. It sounds so idyllic if it's only me but it won't be. Make public transport more attractive and it could be doable. After all, Europe has spent the last X years trying to get people to use bikes and public transport instead of clogging up roads. > eliminating the cost of…

You can get an EV right now and if you have a house in the country side, you can power it almost exclusively using solar power. That would be fusion power from the big fusion reactor in the sky. We've had fission power for about 80 years already.

I actually called out public transport as part of the solution. Autonomous driving makes small buses for uneconomical, remote destinations more feasible. Even just a shuttle to a commuter rail way station would be helpful. The challenge is that these remote areas are depopulating because you can't easily get there. Public transport is amazing but not when it means waiting for a bus for 2 hours that may be delayed by another hour or be cancelled entirely. One plus side of the countryside: not a whole lot of traffic jams there.

Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago

#76

Post by johanvts »

gfrecvh wrote: post #30

What is the actual problem with this development?

In my country part of the problem is taxation. Real estate gains are not taxed so we have instantiated a mini feudal system where the land owning class need not work, and many chase speculation over productive labor, and since this group is rather large this is exacerbating the demographic problems we already have with labor supply. Further it is driving a feeling of unfairness among the rural population that leads to political instability. Finally it is leaving some areas simple in lack of maintenance.

Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago

#77

Post by pibaker »

yawpitch wrote: post #69
pibaker wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is how communist countries managed to make educated professional urbanites live more impoverished lives than American burger flippers. By prioritizing "equality" to the point that you destroy your society's productivity and make everyone's life worse. Would not recommend.

Of course you’re now living through the capitalist dystopia where prioritizing “productivity” is making everyone’s life worse than said communist professional urbanite, but with the added benefit that burger flipping is coming back as an employment sector for recent indentured graduates / serfs. Would also not recommend.

At least in my capitalist dystopia I'm not forced to share my bathroom and kitchen with Ivan next door, like Soviet college professors did.

If you think anything in the first world constitutes indentured servitude, I have some really bad news about how you decide what your job is in the USSR. Hint: you don't.

Re: Half of Europe's towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago

#79

Post by tetris11 »

haunter wrote: post #78

If you just want the map and not this ever scrolling cinematic experience https://cdn.correctiv.org/deployed-apps/CE_2026_population_m...

It's insane to see the UK still growing. Despite all of our problems, it's still a nice place to be
Post reply on HN