2010-04 Press release 01

Demographic Change in the Alps: Europe’s societies on watch

In Europe’s aging societies, demographic change has become a crucial issue. The Alpine Space "DEMOCHANGE" project's aim is to better understand the past, current and future regional and spatial impacts of demographic change specifically within the mountain regions.

Demograghic change describes a change in the age structure of a society‘s human population. This includes various aspects, such as birth rates, death rates and migration in or out of the society.  Thirteen key partners from Austria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland, have joined the Project DEMOCHANGE to elaborate adaptation strategies to spatial planning and regional development in ten Alpine model regions. As the Alpine space differs greatly from its surrounding metropolitan areas, specific in-depth studies for accurate spatial planning and regional development are required. Separate analyses of each Alpine area are needed in various fields such as migration, cost and quality of settlement and housing, labor market, changes in regional demand for public services (i.e. transportation, healthcare, education) and changes in consumer behavior related to key economies such as tourism and agriculture.

The DEMOCHANGE project is co-funded by the “Alpine Space Programme”, the EU transnational co-operation programme for the Alps and will be led by Munich University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Tourism.