Regional well-being variations in Finland

Abstract

The research deals with the regional variations in the well-being of the population in Finland in the mid-1980's. Choosing a viewpoint of well-being can be justified by the changing role of regional structures. In a post-industrial society, there is no longer the same correlation between the old types of regional structures (the structure of production and industries, services, etc.) and the desired well-being factors (employment, livelihood, education, etc.). Consequently, there is an urgent need to explicate the significance of structural changes and policy measures for actual well-being of people in different regions and municipalities.

The research has as an aim to make a general survey of the regional variations in well-being and to identify the most problematic municipalities in terms of certain important resources of well-being: employment, income, housing, education, health, and security against criminal offences. The measurement emphasizes the percentage of the disadvantaged on each scale. On the basis of their regional variation, the variables are concentrated into four concise indices which combined one or more subfactors for well-being: unemployment, 'poverty' (income, education, level of housing), 'misery' (housing space, health), and insecurity. By grouping municipalities on the basis of their structural features into municipality types, the research depicts the structural backgrounds that pose problems to well-being. The types are: (1) large population centres, (2) industrial centres, (3) suburban municipalities, (4) rural population centres, (5) industrialized rural municipalities, (6) rural commuter municipalities, (7) primary production municipalities.

Unemployment is examined as a dual problem: absolute and relative. On a relative scale, the most severe problems occur in Eastern and Northern Finland. These problems affect all municipality types. The problem of unemployment in absolute figures is the most difficult in the large population centres and industrialized centres in the provinces of Turku and Pori, Häme, and Kymi. A large number of the unemployed live in industrial communities where the number of industrial jobs has been drastically cut. Here unemployment is high, both on an absolute and relative scale.

The 'poverty' index varies regionally mainly according to the industrial structure and level of services in the municipality. The differences between the different types of municipality are clear. The regional picture is mosaic. Each province has its own core regions and peripheries. Problems related to the 'misery' index are typical of primary production municipalities, but also of other rural type municipalities. The regional picture is zonal.

The above well-being indices are simply used from the viewpoint of availability of certain well-being resources for people - the viewpoint of level of living. In practical life those resources have strong connections also with nonmaterial and qualitative aspects of well-being. In order to avoid one-sided emphasis on level of living aspects it was relevant to use also the insecurity index. The regional variation of the insecurity index is the reserve of the 'poverty'. Urban-type municipalities with high levels of living show high values on the scale. But the situation is also problematic in many rural regions both in their urban-like population centres and in their periphery regions.

With the help of structural typology of municipalities it is possible to determine the state of affairs concerning the above well-being resources (the lack of them) in different kinds of local structural conditions within different larger regional units - provinces and major regions. However, in most of the municipality types the dispersion of well-being resources is fairly extensive. It follows that an in-depth analysis of the relationship between changing spatial structures and well-being of residents is necessary, and should be carried out using also qualitative data from a living of people at the local level.