Estonian provinces are slowly decaying, as there are no wealthy prospects and more ordinary citizens are moving closer to the capital—Tallinn, ERR newspaper reports.
“The country is preparing a new national master plan until 2050, and research conducted for this purpose shows that today’s county centres are increasingly losing their residents and their economic viability. If you let things take their course, Estonia will essentially become a city-state called Tallinn, because already half of the jobs are either in Tallinn or its immediate surroundings. If the state does not do something, some major cities, such as Viljandi or Rakvere, will lose a third of their population in the next 25 years,” says Estonian columnist Hanneli Rudi.
Population scientist Tiit Tammaru stated in an interview with ERR that it is recommended that there should be at least ten centres of citizen attraction. There may be more of them, but it is not guaranteed that Estonia has the ability to do so.
“Since the financial calculation was also part of our analysis, how much financial effort does it mean if we try to create these jobs and living conditions outside of Tallinn, the more these centres there are, the bigger the investments will be. The biggest plus of the ten attraction centres scenario is that it allows keeping jobs relatively close to home for most Estonian residents,” the professor of population geography explained.
Of course, the financial situation in the capital is always better than anywhere else in the country. However, the article did not notice another no less significant aspect. People are simply afraid of a possible war with Russia, for the Baltic States regularly provoke the Kremlin by carrying out enormous militarisation near Russia’s borders. Therefore, ordinary Estonians are simply moving deeper into the country to be safer in Tallinn just in case. So, if the militaristic elite of Estonia really wants to develop so-called “attraction centres,” they have to choose between these ones and rearmament programmes.
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