Chapter 10:

Revitalising rural Europe

Takeaways

The socioeconomic gaps between rural and urban areas in Europe are widening. Low educational attainment and lack of digital skills in much of the rural population, two areas critical to maintaining resilience in the face of changing economic and social conditions, are particularly concerning. Depopulation and cuts in public and private services are among the factors that threaten the long-term sustainability of rural areas.

Rural dwellers have less trust in government and the EU compared with urban residents and are more likely to feel ignored by government, which threatens social cohesion.

Providing good-quality public services is fundamental to building the trust of communities in the state. Developing innovative ways of delivering public services and exploiting the potential of digital delivery is central to restoring the confidence of the rural population in political institutions.

Broadly speaking, rural areas in the EU lag behind urban areas in many aspects of economic prosperity, including employment and income. In 2021, the average employment rate in rural areas was 74%, compared with 75.8% in cities; the median income in rural areas was €17,032, compared with €18,668 in cities. This advantage of urban centres, however, is not uniform across the Member States. In Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, for instance, the employment rate in rural areas is higher than in cities. In Austria, Belgium, Germany, Malta and the Netherlands, median incomes are lowest in cities.

Two domains where the rural–urban gap is wider and where rural areas are consistently at a disadvantage across the Member States are educational attainment and digital literacy. Substantially more city residents have attained a tertiary education (55%) than rural residents (34%) (Figure 27). There are few exceptions to the pattern at national level, a testament to the migration of educated rural natives to cities.

Figure 27: Tertiary educational attainment, by Member State and degree of urbanisation, 2021 (%)

Source: EU-LFS

While over half (56%) of Europeans have a basic or higher level of digital skills, the rate is above this average in cities (63%) and below it in rural areas (49%). In every Member State, cities consistently have the largest share of the population with at least basic digital skills when compared with towns and rural areas. The extent to which rural residents have these skills varies widely across the EU, ranging from 76% in the Netherlands to 17% in Bulgaria (Figure 28).

Figure 28: Population with at least basic digital skills, by Member State and degree of urbanisation, 2021 (%)

Source: European Social Survey on ICT usage in households and by individuals

Falling behind in terms of educational attainment and digital literacy tends to undermine rural communities’ resilience in a changing economic and social climate. There are also significant implications for social inclusion in light of the digital transition, which has set in motion the move of basic services online, such as banking, taxation and travel.

Depopulation is having knock-on effects on the provision of services. With fewer customers, services become unviable, causing providers to retreat from rural areas. Day by day, rural communities are losing bank branches, post offices and police stations. Rural residents often have to travel long distances for schooling and healthcare. For example, for a city dweller, the nearest primary school is on average less than 2 km away, but for a rural resident the distance is 4.8 km. The average distance to healthcare services in cities is 2.4 km, compared with 14.4 km in rural areas. In Denmark, a country with well-developed healthcare provision, the density of hospitals per 100,000 inhabitants in rural areas is half the national average. Such statistics help to explain why rural dwellers often feel marginalised and disconnected from the state.

When asked about their trust in government and the EU by Eurofound’s Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey, rural residents scored lower on average than residents of towns and cities (Figure 29). Among the Member States, trust in government is higher in cities than other areas for most countries, except Croatia, Hungary, Malta and Poland. The rural–urban gap in levels of trust in the EU was highest in Germany, Hungary, Austria, France, Czechia and Sweden, where cities report the highest levels of trust.

Figure 29: Trust in government and trust in the EU, by degree of urbanisation, EU27, 2022

Note: Scale of 1–10.
Source: Living, working and COVID-19 e-survey, round 5 (2022)

Low levels of public trust in political institutions should trigger alarm among the political classes. The legitimacy of the state’s institutions depends on citizens’ trust in the decisions and actions those institutions take. Public trust is a precondition for effective governance, while its absence can lead to instability and even pose a threat to support for democracy.

One route to strengthening trust is to begin rectifying the deficiencies in public service provision to rural areas. In previous research, Eurofound observed that improving the quality of public services was the most powerful driver boosting trust in institutions. Moreover, the European Pillar of Social Rights, which is effectively the foundation of EU social policy, underlines the right of all Europeans to education, healthcare and long-term care as well as essential services. Delivery on the Pillar implies delivery of those services to rural areas.

This is no small challenge, as the provision of services in the traditional way to sparse and dispersed rural communities is costly for the public purse. And in some cases, the old way is not the best way. For instance, small local hospitals cannot deliver the quality of outcome for complex illness that large hospitals with high volumes of patients can. Another difficulty for rural regions, noted much earlier in this report, is attracting highly skilled staff, for whom rural employment provides limited career prospects and for whom rural locations lack the schools, infrastructure and social amenities that they and their families need.

Determined organisations and bodies across Europe are exploring new and more innovative ways of providing services to rural communities. Much evidence of this comes from healthcare. Regarding specialist hospital care, for instance, the health services in Estonia and Romania have set up hospital networks linking regional hospitals with smaller local hospitals to share professionals and technology to cover rural areas. To attract staff, financial incentives such as one-off payments, accommodation allowances and above-average wage increases are being offered. Tasks are being distributed more broadly across healthcare professionals: some health services, for instance, have expanded the role of pharmacists so that they can offer a range of health services such as screening tests and chronic disease management programmes. Telehealth is improving accessibility by enabling patients and doctors to conduct their initial interactions online before proceeding if necessary to face-to-face consultation.

Investing in the online delivery of services more broadly will form a crucial plank in reducing the isolation of rural residents. This is well under way in many respects, with the online provision of several government and local authority services such as submission of application forms, tax payments and interactions with local authorities. However, the successful digital delivery of services is dependent on broadband availability in rural areas, roll-out of which is dismally slow in some regions. Furthermore, upskilling rural residents in digital skills is urgent so that they may avail of those services.

An expansion of remote working, the feasibility of which was proven under the duress of the pandemic, could help to breathe life back into the countryside and reverse rural depopulation. Many people are attracted by the idea of living in the countryside but the lack of job opportunities has dissuaded them from making a move. With housing costs escalating in cities and rural communities crying out for reinvigoration, it would be remiss of governments not to invest in making remote working from rural locations a viable option for workers and in getting buy-in from employers. Some Member States offer relocation grants, but at present these barely cover the associated costs, and the efforts by government in this endeavour could be considerably stronger.