Small towns in Finland seek ways to ´stay alive´

Virrat, a small town of around 6,500 people in western Finland, has recently announced that early childhood education will be free of charge in the community from January 2023, reported Xinhua.

As the population is declining in the country's rural areas, small towns like Virrat are doing everything in their power to attract new residents.

According to a study published by the University of Eastern Finland in July 2022, more than 60 percent - over 200 -- of Finland's 309 municipalities have seen a decline in their population in the past two decades.

Statistics Finland has calculated that by 2040 the population will increase in only 63 municipalities and decrease in 246 municipalities. Population growth occurs mainly in the largest cities and their surrounding municipalities, while population loss is strongest in small municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants.

To tackle this demographic challenge, many small towns in Finland are trying their best to "stay alive."

In addition to the newly announced measures, since 2020, Virrathas provided 4,000 euros to new parents, offered a 50 percent rent reduction to new employees for four months, and granted 400-euro scholarship and free accommodation to university students living there.

Currently, 12 other Finnish municipalities also offer free early childhood education, Jarkko Lahtinen, development manager at the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, told the Finnish national broadcaster Yle.

Lahtinen said that Salla, a northern town with 3,357 inhabitants, will also join this group next year.

Currently, 58 municipalities pay "baby allowance" - 500 euros on average -- to parents whose baby had a due date in 2022.

Henna Viitanen, mayor of Virrat, believes that the most attractive of all the available measures is the 50 percent rent reduction offered to new employees for four months.

The town has planned to extend the rent relief for another two months in 2023. According to Viitanen, the measure's ultimate aim is to find a solution to the labor shortage. In the past two years, Virrat has attracted an increasing number of new tenants.

Miehikkälä, a town in the southwest of the country with only 1,819 inhabitants, offers 10,000 euros to the parents of newborn babies and a subsidy of 4,000 euros to persons aged 18-39 who purchase their first apartment there. These measures have been in place since 2018.

Since the beginning of 2020, Sulkava, a city in the country's southeast with 2,412 inhabitants, has provided a family package, which includes free daycare and one month's extra allowance for each child under 18 years of age. The total cost of the family package is around 100,000 euros per year.

Sulkava Mayor Juho Järvenpää said that the city considers the family package an investment in the future.