Arctic Yearbook 2014 | Page 85

Arctic Yearbook 2014 85 prime child-bearing ages. Depending on the nature of economic activity there might be a significant imbalance in the gender ratio among the incomers, which is certainly the case in many Arctic regions and communities. Demographically, this tends to keep the population of a region quite young, in addition to other economic influences such as being a boost to economic growth. On the other hand, regions experiencing population declines from migration are losing large numbers of people in the young adult ages, exacerbating population decline and serving to dampen economic dynamism. As will be illustrated, many Arctic regions and settlements are on the extremes of population change from high rates of in-migration or out-migration. Figure 1 shows population change in the Arctic disaggregated into natural increase and net migration for selected Arctic regions since 2000.1 Nunavut has grown the most of any Arctic region because its young age structure and high fertility have led to high natural increase, which is slightly offset by net out-migration. Alaska, the Khanty-Mansiy okrug, and Iceland have similar patterns of high natural increase and moderate in-migration as all three regions have rather prosperous economies. (It should be noted that Alaska is a large and demographically heterogeneous region with a majority of the population residing in a few large sub-Arctic urban centers. Generally, the North Slope, Nome, and Northwest Arctic boroughs are considered Arctic for analytical purposes. These, along with other rural boroughs generally have high natural increase, combined with net outmigration. See Hamilton, Lammers, Glidden & Saito, 2014.) In Yukon, population growth was due equally to natural increase and net in-migration. These were the only three Arctic regions which grew faster than the global rate, which was all obviously due to natural increase. Figure 1: Population change from natural increase and net migration in selected Arctic regions, 2000 to present Nunavut Alaska Khanty-Mansiy Okrug Iceland Yukon WORLD Yamal-Nenets Okrug Faroe Islands Nenets Okrug NWT Greenland Yakutia Taymyr Okrug Evenki Okrug Karelia Arkhangel'sk Kamchatka Komi Murmansk Chukotka Okrug Magadan Koryak Okrug Percent change from natural increase Percent change from net migration -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 Sources: National and regional statistical offices. Data are in order by total population change.   Migration in the Arctic