Exploring population redistribution at sub-municipal levels – Microurbanisation and messy migration in Sweden's high North

To contribute to more balanced perspectives on sub-municipal population change in sparsely populated areas (SPAs), this paper closely examines a local pocket of growth in a shrinking Northern Swedish municipality. Integrating Swedish register data with in-depth qualitative insights, the geographic study examines patterns and processes of uneven local population dynamics linked to life course migration. This is done through a socio-spatial cluster analysis containing, first, 15 aggregate socioeconomic variables for sub-municipal areas, and then individual characteristics like birth countries, age groups, sex ratios, educational attainment, and employment status. A Foresight approach and interviews with locals, municipal officials, and incoming lifestyle migrants complement this. Studying these individuals' practical compromises regarding housing, income, and leisure at sub-municipal levels helps in overcoming fallacies in population change research at broader regional levels, and illustrates the limits of relying solely on quantitative demographic change indicators. The paper shows that urban traits in the municipal centre and rural natural amenities around a dogsledding trail combine to attract and retain different population groups. This adds to population change studies and shows that municipal administrative centres in SPAs are not necessarily growing while other villages are declining, and that population redistribution at the municipal level does not automatically imply the movement of people to municipal centres from a municipality's minor villages. •This paper analyses migration flows at sub-municipal levels.•We integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches.•Microurbanisation in SPAs is connected with various migration flows.•Population redistribution did occur in places' immediate context.•People make practical compromises between urban and rural traits.