Impact of demographic factors to rural vitality

Abstract

Rural vitality is an important public good which is needed to be constantly maintained by appropriate rural policy decisions and which is supported by a number of factors, one of which is infrastructure and services provided. This article covers only one of the elements of the infrastructure - transportation infrastructure – which provides movement services to people in space (public, individual transport, its availability, roads density, quality, etc.). The paper aimed to establish the relationship between the region's vitality and communication infrastructure elements and their trends The study was carried out for three groups of Lithuanian municipalities in which they have been divided by internal migration rate: viable (lowest emigration), non-viable (maximum) and mid-viable. The results showed that while non-viable regions are fading more rapidly (faster population decline and aging) than viable, it's transportation infrastructure are scrambling to maintain at a level that the regional aging population suffer the least possible inconvenience.

JEL codes: H44, R11, R40, R53.