Regional development

Our mission is to make Finland a better place in which to live and work, giving it the tools to engage in continuous self-development. Our experts have been researching, developing, evaluating and weaving together networks focusing on municipal and regional development for decades. 

Regional development affects cities, sub-regions, provinces, welfare areas and the national level. The issues faced in respect of urban and rural development show some similarities but also exhibit significant differences. 

We provide support for the general activities and decision-making processes of public and private-sector organisations interested in regional development. For this purpose, we produce current-status analyses, scenario and strategy work outlining possible futures and network analyses identifying actors and networks. 

We have studied the current state and status of multi-location and place-independence, the preconditions for feminist vitality and have sparred numerous municipalities in relation to their strategy work. 

Current themes in regional development include 

• strengthening vitality
• the production of services 
• attracting a skilled workforce 
• business environment promotion 
• environmental and climate issues 
• economic factors 

One of the main strings to our regional development bow is analyses related to population and migration. The process of demographic change influences virtually all themes across the broad field of regional development. We analyse demographics and migration at all regional levels, from provinces to neighbourhoods.  

In our analyses related to population and migration, we examine the population structure of the selected area as well as changes in the population structure, for example from the perspective of the age structure, language structure or socio-economic structure. We examine the formation of demographic development especially from the perspective of migration, considering the diverse flows of migrants and the structure of migration flows.