About Theme Group 1: Sustainable Rural Development
Rural development is an important theme in all parts of the Nordic Region. All of its geographic areas are affected by a number of similar challenges, e.g. demographics, service provision, infrastructure, digitalisation, business and industry, housing, attractiveness, education and employment, nature and the environment.
Developing rural, sparsely-populated and peripheral areas plays an important role in making the development of the Region as a whole as coherent as possible. It facilitates exploiting the potential of the various parts of the Region and helps counter growing regional imbalance in terms of economic growth, population growth, access to services, gender equality and education.
Nordregio, the Nordic Council of Ministers’ international research centre for regional development and planning, provides the secretariat function to the theme group.