Rural depopulation
“Why are the world's rural regions emptying out, and can anything bring them back?”
Root causes (expand to see solutions)
Rural depopulation is the steady emptying of the countryside, ageing the villages left behind, and it now runs as deep in wealthy Japan and Spain as in China or the Balkans.
What's at stake
Emptying regions leave the old stranded, far from the children and clinics they depend on. Abandoned farmland dries out and burns, feeding wildfires across southern Europe, while roads, water and power cost far more per person for the few who remain. Residents who feel written off increasingly turn to populist, anti-system politics, eroding trust in democracy.
The global picture
China
High severity
As young workers move to the cities, more than 50 million elderly are left behind in rural China, amid abandoned homes and farmland.China National Health and Family Planning Commission, 2015
Rural areas are thinning too across Latin America, the Balkans and much of East Asia as people move to cities.