Maps

Nordregio Summer Map 2022: Empty streets, closed restaurants – where is everyone? Nordic cities are about to quiet down as millions of people are logging out from work. But where do they go – Mallorca? Some yes, but the Nordic people are known for their nature-loving and private spirit, and most like to unwind in isolation. So, they head to their private paradises – to one of the 1.8 million summer houses around the Nordics, or as they would call them: sommerhus, stuga, hytte, sumarbústaður or mökki. The Nordregio Summer Map 2022 reveals the secret spots. The Finnish and Norwegians are most likely already packing their cars and leaving the cities: the highest supply of summer houses per inhabitant is found in Finland (92 summer houses per 1000 inhabitants) closely followed by Norway (82). The Swedish (59) Danish (40) and Icelandic (40) people seem to have more varied summer activities. There are large regional differences in the number of summer houses and the number of potential users – so not enough cabins where people would want them! And this is the dilemma Nordregio Summer Map 2022 shows in detail. Most people live in the larger urban areas while many summer houses are located in more remote and sparsely populated areas. The largest deficit of summer houses is found in Stockholm: with almost 1 million inhabitants, there is a need for 65,000 summer houses but the municipality has only 2,000 to offer! So, people living in Stockholm need to go elsewhere to find a summer house. The same goes for the other capital municipalities which have large deficits in summer houses: Oslo is missing 44,000, Helsinki 43,000, and Copenhagen 34,000. Fortunately, there are places that would happily accommodate these second-home searchers. Good news for Stockholm after all as the top-scoring municipality…

The map shows the relative change in the number of overnight stays at the regional level between 2019 and 2020 for domestic visitors. This map is related to the same map showing change in overnight stays for foreign visitors 2019–2020. The sharpest fall in visitors from abroad was in destinations where foreign tourists usually make up a high proportion of the total visitors. This is particularly relevant to islands like Åland (89% decrease on foreign visitors, from early 2019 to mid-2020) and to Iceland (66-77% drop depending on region). Lofoten and Nordland County in Norway, as well as Western Norway with Møre and Romsdal, which also have a high proportion of international tourists during the summer season due to their scenic landscape, also recorded sharp falls of 77-79% on foreign visitors during the same period. In Finland, the lake district (South Savo) and Southern Karelia, as well as the coastal Central Ostrobothnia (major cities Vasa and Karleby), recorded a 75-77% drop in the number of visitors from abroad. The fall here was mainly due to the lack of tourists from Russia. Even Finnish Lapland suffered a major fall in international visits during the winter peak period. For many local businesses that rely heavily on winter holidaymakers, the 2021/22 winter was a make-or-break season. In Sweden, the regions of Kalmar, Västra Götaland, Värmland and Örebro lost 77–79% of visitors from abroad, probably due to much fewer visitors from neighbouring Norway and from Denmark. In Denmark, the number of overnight stays by visitors from abroad to the Capital Region was down by 73%, whereas the number of domestic visitors declined by 27%. No region lost as many overnight visitors, both from abroad and domestic, as the capital cities and larger urban areas in the Nordic countries. Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki and Reykjavik…

The map shows the relative change in the number of overnight stays at the regional level between 2019 and 2020 for foreign visitors. This map is related to the same map showing change in overnight stays for domestic visitors 2019–2020. The sharpest fall in visitors from abroad was in destinations where foreign tourists usually make up a high proportion of the total visitors. This is particularly relevant to islands like Åland (89% decrease on foreign visitors, from early 2019 to mid-2020) and to Iceland (66-77% drop depending on region). Lofoten and Nordland County in Norway, as well as Western Norway with Møre and Romsdal, which also have a high proportion of international tourists during the summer season due to their scenic landscape, also recorded sharp falls of 77-79% on foreign visitors during the same period. In Finland, the lake district (South Savo) and Southern Karelia, as well as the coastal Central Ostrobothnia (major cities Vasa and Karleby), recorded a 75-77% drop in the number of visitors from abroad. The fall here was mainly due to the lack of tourists from Russia. Even Finnish Lapland suffered a major fall in international visits during the winter peak period. For many local businesses that rely heavily on winter holidaymakers, the 2021/22 winter was a make-or-break season. In Sweden, the regions of Kalmar, Västra Götaland, Värmland and Örebro lost 77–79% of visitors from abroad, probably due to much fewer visitors from neighbouring Norway and from Denmark. In Denmark, the number of overnight stays by visitors from abroad to the Capital Region was down by 73%, whereas the number of domestic visitors declined by 27%. No region lost as many overnight visitors, both from abroad and domestic, as the capital cities and larger urban areas in the Nordic countries. Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki and Reykjavik…

This map indicates the distribution of different TDP sustainability concern treatment classes in the Nordic Region in 2020 Sustainability is seen as an important part of the tourism development in large parts of the Nordic rural regions, at least on paper. Some tourism policies even state it as the point of departure, the light that guides the way in everything that tourism involves. A growing public awareness of the need to transition to more sustainable practices, increased public pressure, along with political statements and commitments to do so, means that we should expect to find sustainability concerns and the SDGs strongly reflected in sub-national plans for tourism development, too. In this map, the dotted areas represent those TDPs that do not mention sustainability in any way. These mainly come from Denmark, as well as a few from Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The grey areas represent TDPs who mention the concept of sustainability, but in a very limited way, as a reference to an overall, global or international or national agenda, but without further operationalising or setting any goals regarding this for the local context. This type of treatment of sustainability concerns is mainly present in Finland, followed by Denmark and Sweden, plus a few cases from Norway and Iceland. Together, these two types represent almost two out of every five TDPs. They greyish green areas represent those TDPs which limit their discussion of sustainability to the economic sustainability of tourism businesses. This type of TDP is mainly found in Sweden, followed by Denmark, and then a case from each from Finland, Norway and Iceland. The green areas, which represent just under half of the TDPs, engage in a holistic treatment of sustainability concerns, including their economic, social and environmental aspects. The light green TDPs, with a tourism-centred sustainability treatment, come…

The travel times indicate the fastest morning connection outbound from Copenhagen Central Station or Malmö Central Station, departing after 6:30AMand arriving before 9:00AM. The station catchments are calculated by bicycle travel time for any time remaining beyond train travel. For instance, a 35-minute train ride and a 10-minute cycle ride results in a 45-minute total travel time. The shades of green indicate the travel time to other train stations and their surrounding areas in four main classes: up to 15 minutes, 16 to 30 minutes, 31 to 45 minutes and 46 to 60 minutes. The areas not highlighted in green on the map are further than one hour by train from either Copenhagen or Malmö main train stations. The map clearly shows that the vast majority of areas within the Capital Region of Denmark, a number of stations and areas which are part of the region of Zealand, for instance Slagelse and Næstved, as well as areas located along four main train corridors in Skåne (Malmö-Helsingborg, Malmö-Hässleholm, Malmö-Trelleborg and Malmö-Ystad) are within the one-hour travel time by train from/to Copenhagen and/or Malmö, thanks to the different train types (Öresund trains, regional trains and intercity trains). Areas of the GCR which are beyond the one-hour travel condition are the most northern part of the Capital Region of Denmark, the southern and western parts of Zealand (e.g. Kalundborg and Vordingborg) as well as most of the eastern half part of Skåne. In terms of population, the current situation provides this possibility to almost 3 million out of 4.3 million inhabitants, corresponding to 69% of the total population living in the Greater Copenhagen Region in 2020. The proportion of the total population increases to 75% when the region of Halland is excluded (as this was not initially part of the GCR when the…

This map shows the Greater Copenhagen Region, which constists of 85 municipalities and four regional authorities: the Capital Region of Denmark and Region Zealand on the Danish side, and the regions of Skåne and Halland on the Swedish side.

This map shows both the location of the four case studies of the Triborder activity 3 in the Greater Copenhagen Region and the local labour market areas in this cross-border region.

Average annual flows above 1000 people by country of origin Migration flows by country of origin are of growing interest in the Nordic Region due to the recent unprecedented inflows of migrants. There are also interesting differences between the Nordic countries with respect to the dominant countries of origin of migrants and the size of inflows. Finland had only four inflows exceeding annual averages of 1000 people during the measured period. The inflow from Estonia was by far the largest, an annual average of around 5000 people, flowed by inflows from Sweden and Russia (just under 3000), and the United Kingdom (around 1000).

Average annual flows above 1000 people by country of origin Migration flows by country of origin are of growing interest in the Nordic Region due to the recent unprecedented inflows of migrants. There are also interesting differences between the Nordic countries with respect to the dominant countries of origin of migrants and the size of inflows. During the measured period, there were more than 23 average annual inflows to Denmark that exceeded 1000 people. However, none of these inflows were as large as the dominant inflows to Norway and Sweden during the same period. The largest inflows to Denmark were around 5000 people each from U.S., Sweden, Germany and Poland. Due to historic and political connections, Denmark, unlike Norway, Finland and Sweden, had substantial annual inflows from the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Iceland (around 1000 or 2000 each). These numbers are particularly notable in the context of the small populations of

Average annual flows above 3000 people by country of origin Migration flows by country of origin are of growing interest in the Nordic Region due to the recent unprecedented inflows of migrants. There are also interesting differences between the Nordic countries with respect to the dominant countries of origin of migrants and the size of inflows. The map shows some clear spatial patterns regarding the dominant countries of origin of migrants and the size of inflows to each of the Nordic countries. Finland had only one average annual inflow of over 3000 people during the measured period, namely from Estonia. Compared to the other Nordic countries, Sweden had by far the largest immigrant flows, with average annual arrivals of nearly 19 000 immigrants from Syria, around 5000 from both Somalia and Poland, about 4000 from Iraq and Eritrea, and circa 3000 from Afghanistan, India, China and Iran. For Norway, inflows above 3000 people were all from nearby countries: Sweden, Lithuania, Denmark, and Poland. Inflows from Poland were particularly high – an annual average of almost 11 000 people. Although Denmark experienced a similar number of inflows above 3000 people, these inflows were smaller and more evenly distributed than in Norway and Sweden. The largest inflows were around 5000 people and included migrants from the U.S., Sweden, Germany and Poland.

Average annual flows above 1000 people by country of origin Migration flows by country of origin are of growing interest in the Nordic Region due to the recent unprecedented inflows of migrants. There are also interesting differences between the Nordic countries with respect to the dominant countries of origin of migrants and the size of inflows. The Faroe Islands and Greenland each had one average annual inflow greater than 1000 people during the measured period, in both cases from Denmark (around 2000 to Greenland and around 1000 to the Faroe Islands). Iceland had average annual inflows just above 1000 people from two countries, Denmark and Poland.

Average annual flows above 1000 people by country of origin Migration flows by country of origin are of growing interest in the Nordic Region due to the recent unprecedented inflows of migrants. There are also interesting differences between the Nordic countries with respect to the dominant countries of origin of migrants and the size of inflows. During the measured period, Sweden had by far had the largest immigrant flows compared to of all the other Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway. An annual average of nearly 19 000 immigrants came from Syria, around 5000 from both Somalia and Poland, about 4000 from Iraq and Eritrea, and circa 3000 each from Afghanistan, India, China and Iran. Many of the largest immigration flows to Sweden originated from countries in East Africa, the Middle-East, and mainland Asia. Alongside the large inflows from Poland, Sweden also experienced large inflows from its other European neighbours: Finland, Germany, Denmark and Norway (over 2000 people at the annual average).

Average annual flows above 1000 people by country of origin Migration flows by country of origin are of growing interest in the Nordic Region due to the recent unprecedented inflows of migrants. There are also interesting differences between the Nordic countries with respect to the dominant countries of origin of migrants and the size of inflows. During the measured period, the largest average annual inflows to Norway were from nearby countries: Sweden, Lithuania, Denmark, and, most notably, Poland (annual average of almost 11 000 people). This specific pattern for Norway can largely be explained by the rich job opportunities that have existed in in the country over the past decade.

As of 1 January 2015

Intercontinental destinations of direct scheduled commercial flights from Nordic capital cities’ main airport