ABSTRACT
In Sweden by tradition more political interest has been focused on regional development in sparsely populated parts of the country than on urban development. The former role of the national regional policy was to support growth in sparsely populated regions and to restrict the expansion of the large metropolitan regions. This policy has its roots in the 1950s with its large migration from the ‘forest counties’ in the north of Sweden. The content of the new policy area, called ‘location policy’, was imported from the UK. One of the arguments used in favour of the ‘location policy’ was that it should reduce the population growth in the metropolitan regions. The growing structural problems in the 1970s following the first oil crisis and deepened by the second oil crisis some years later added part of the old manufacturing belt in the middle of Sweden to the areas designated for regional policy support.
