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MALMÖ

This is how many people now live in the Öresund region

The population of the Öresund Region has grown by 300,000 people over the last decade, taking its total population to more than four million, according to new figures presented at the Business Arena conference in Malmö.

This is how many people now live in the Öresund region
Young families enjoy the spring weather earlier this year. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT
But while the region's total population exceeds that of Berlin, Paris or Madrid, economic growth still lags behind the most dynamic European regions, according to the Öresund Institute, which prepared the report. 
 
“I think we have good momentum, but we also have a problem, both in Malmö and Copenhagen, which is that the economic growth in both cities is still lagging behind cities like Stockholm, Amsterdam and Hamburg,” Johan Wessman, the Institute's chief executive, told The Local. 
 
The Öresund Region, sometimes marketed as Greater Copenhagen, groups the Danish cities of Copenhagen, Odense and Roskilde together with Malmö, Lund, and Helsingborg in Sweden, and their surrounding regions. 
 
By marketing the area as a single business region, and encouraging cross-border activity, local municipal and regional governments hope to draw investment to the area. 
 
READ ALSO: 
According to the figures, which were first released at the end of January, the region's population grew by 0.8 percent in 2018, with Denmark's Christiansø seeing the fastest growth, expanding by 8.4 percent. 
 
Swedish commuter towns of Svedala, Staffanstorp and Lomma grew by 2.4 percent, 2.3 percent and 2.1 percent respectively, and Solrød and Vallensbæk in Denmark by 2.4 and 2.3 percent.
 
Malmö grew by 1.7 percent, Copenhagen by 1.6 percent, Lund by 1.4 percent, and Helsingborg by 1.5 percent.  
 
Wessman said that the population on the Swedish side of the Öresund Strait had been growing faster in recent years as a result of the 2015 refugee wave, which was continuing to push population growth as refugees settled elsewhere in Sweden move to join family and friends in Malmö. 
 
“We have seen migration from other countries, mostly in the Swedish part of the Öresund region, which has had a rather heavy impact over the last couple of years,” he said. 
 
But he said the region was also growing faster because of its young population and the cities' positive reputation both internationally and locally.  
 
“We have a reputation for interesting cities with good liveability,” he said.  “And when you have a young population, you have more children and higher birth rates.” 

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COPENHAGEN

Copenhagen to get warning system for air pollution

Residents in Copenhagen system will be warned when air pollution hits high levels in the capital, the city government has decided.

Copenhagen to get warning system for air pollution

The quality of Copenhagen’s air is slowly improving, but city politicians have nevertheless decided to implement a warning system that will tell the capital’s residents when the air quality takes a dip, broadcaster DR reports.

The idea behind the decision, taken by the Copenhagen Municipality city council, is to warn people with respiratory conditions and in other risk groups when the air is so polluted that it presents a risk to their health.

“Every tenth death in Copenhagen can be linked to air pollution. We have to protect Copenhageners against this,” head of the city government’s health committee, Sisse Marie Welling of the Socialist People’s Party (SF), told DR.

READ ALSO: Pollution linked to ‘one in eight’ deaths in EU countries

The details of how the warning system will work are yet to be finalised, but will likely to be based on telephones.

Asthmatic Copenhagen resident Katrine Østerby welcomed the move but also told DR that she hoped politicians would do more about the causes of air pollution.

“I am a young student who is in good physical condition and does a lot of the right things, so I feel there should also be space for me in Copenhagen – and that it’s air pollution that we should get under control, not me that should move out of the way,” she said.

The system will be implemented by late 2024, according to the plan.

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