Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Socioeconomic development and the age structure of a population are often linked \ntogether in the public discourse. It is generally accepted that in industrial societies the \npopulations of more developed regions have both younger age structures and higher \nlevels of education. Consequently, less developed regions or places have older age \nstructures. In this study, we examine the evidence behind this general perception, and \ndiscuss the links between age structure and socioeconomic development. There are not \nvery many studies devoted to this particular subject, and while regional development \ninequalities have a substantial literature, its relation to age structure is less extensively \nstudied (Brunow & Hirte 2006, Voss 2007). One particular example is the case of \nScotland (Lisenkova et al. 2010) where the authors examined the impact of age structure \non economic development. Their conclusion was that positive net migration is needed to \ncounterbalance the negative economic impact of an older age structure. \nScholars from various disciplines, such as sociology, regional economics, political \nscience and anthropology often argue that regional inequalities do not decline, rather \nincrease over time (Spéder 2002, Kulcsár 2009, Bódi 2010). In many countries, including \nHungary, a significant portion of the population lives in lagging, or so called “forgotten” \nplaces (Lyson & Falk 1993, Ritter 2010). The age structures of these places, however, are \nnot uniform. Some do experience aging in place and negative net migration, while others \ndo not. Therefore, it is not entirely true that in less developed regions and places we can \nonly find aging populations, while in more developed places the populations are always \nyoung and increasing due to migration
Authors: László J. Kulcsár, Csilla Obádovics
Language: English
Subfield: Demography
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2138163785