Counter-Urban Activity Out of Copenhagen: Who, Where and Why?

Hans Thor Andersen, Aske Egsgaard-Pedersen, Høgni Kalsø Hansen, Elise Stenholt Lange and Helle Nørgaard
Additional contact information
Hans Thor Andersen: Department of the Built Environment, Aalborg University Copenhagen, 2450 København, Denmark
Aske Egsgaard-Pedersen: Department of the Built Environment, Aalborg University Copenhagen, 2450 København, Denmark
Høgni Kalsø Hansen: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, 1165 København, Denmark
Elise Stenholt Lange: Department of the Built Environment, Aalborg University Copenhagen, 2450 København, Denmark
Helle Nørgaard: Department of the Built Environment, Aalborg University Copenhagen, 2450 København, Denmark

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-22

Abstract: While migration is often understood as movement towards cities, it can also assume another direction, traditionally termed counter-urbanisation. This paper contributes to the study of counter-urbanisation by investigating data on settlement patterns to places outside commuting distance to the Copenhagen labour market. Counter-urban migration outside of the Copenhagen commuting area is compared with out-migration from Copenhagen to suburbs and commuting areas in the period from 2005 to 2020, reflecting periods of both economic growth and recession. In this paper, we explore this development in terms of the numbers and characteristics of migrants moving out of commuting distance in comparison to those migrants who leave the city to settle in the suburbs or within commuting distance. The quantitative findings are combined with qualitative findings from a survey of the motives of migrants. In line with earlier studies, this study finds that family, friends, place-specific relations and job opportunities are important motives for moving. However, the results also show that an increasing share of migrants have higher education. This will contribute to the future economic and social sustainability of rural and peripheral places in Denmark.

Keywords: counter-urban migration; migrant characteristics; motives for moving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6516/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6516/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6516-:d:824817

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().