Several young people are streaming towards Aarhus. Good for Aarhus, but it could be bad for a number of other cities.
One in three young people moving from South Jutland now heads to Aarhus. Catharina Victoria Petersen moved with her boyfriend from Esbjerg to Aarhus a month ago. (Photo: © Jan Rørkjær) 4 minutes ago
Catharina Victoria Petersen became part of a larger migration flow when she packed her car with boxes, furniture, and dreams a month ago and moved to Aarhus.
About one in three times that young people from West, South, and East Jutland move, they enter Aarhus as the destination for their new home on the GPS.
Since 2010, Aarhus is the city in Denmark that has particularly attracted more young people, according to figures from Statistics Denmark.
Catharina Victoria Petersen is 21 years old and moved with her boyfriend to the City of Smiles from Esbjerg. There was too little happening in Esbjerg, where she was born and raised.
- Aarhus has always been the place for me. It sounds like a cool place to be young. There are many other young people there too, and that creates a sense of community where you have fun with each other, and that automatically attracts more young people, she says.
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Young people move for friends and the big city
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The major university cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, and Aalborg have long attracted young people, but the migration flow towards Aarhus has been strong, explains Elise Stenholt Lange, postdoc at Aalborg University and researcher in migration patterns.
- Aarhus is a huge magnet. What is interesting is that the city has become an even stronger magnet. Many of the young people in the Jutland regions are no longer crossing the Great Belt as before. They are moving to Copenhagen to a lesser extent, but now they are actually moving to Aarhus.
- It's an interesting pattern, she says.
DR has spoken with young people from Kolding who mention that almost their entire high school class is now in Aarhus. Elise Stenholt Lange says that young people are especially concerned with proximity to friends and living in a larger city when they move.
However, there is also a downside when young people from South and West Jutland stream towards Aarhus. It is felt in educational institutions in a number of cities such as Haderslev, Hobro, Skive, Ikast, and Nr. Nissum near Lemvig, where the number of students has shrunk over the past ten years.
Denmark is being pulled unevenly and is becoming less cohesive, believes Alexander Christian von Oettingen, rector of UC Syd, the largest educational institution in South Jutland.
- This means we cannot recruit and train enough teachers, educators, nurses, and social workers for our region. You have to remember that when young people move away, not all of them come back. Then they are gone!
- We will miss them to ensure we have good schools, kindergartens, and hospitals.
Catharina Victoria Petersen prefers to study psychology in Aarhus rather than in Esbjerg, where she grew up.
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Nothing could keep Catharina in Esbjerg
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In a few weeks, Catharina Victoria Petersen will begin studying psychology at Aarhus University. The program has also just been established in Esbjerg, but she needed a new city.
- I can see that it can be a problem for the cities that are left behind when a lot of young people move away.
But that's not your problem?
- No, well... You kind of have to follow what you want and not think too much about what happens to the city if I move away.
Could Esbjerg have done anything to make you stay?
- I don't think so.
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