Abstract (eng)
The purpose of this diploma thesis is to develop a typology of European regions based on demographic variables and the link the resulting typology to economic indicators. In this context, this thesis does not only discuss the state of the demography of European countries, but rather concentrates on European regions at the scale of NUTS 2. Based on the awareness, that particular demographic trends and patterns exist across Europe, a classifica-tion of European regions based on demographic variables was developed. This typology of 286 NUTS 2 regions is a comprehensive classification of the demographic structure and short-term trends in the EU27+4 and distin-guishes between seven types of regions, which enable the user to capture the demographic diversity of European regions in 2005 at first glance. Additional analyses illustrate the demographic and socio-economic character-istics of the different types of regions in terms of potentials and challenges.
The typology of the demographic status sheds light on the prevailing demo-graphic pluralism across Europe. It identifies diverse and heterogeneous spatial patterns beyond traditional categories like population growth and decline, which are shaping the demographic landscape of European regions at the beginning of the 21st century. When zooming beyond the geography of nation states, the often-underestimated extent of regional heterogeneity of demographic characteristics becomes apparent. In order to obtain homoge-neous spatial patterns, a regional aggregation in terms of clustering makes sense. This regional level classification of the demographic status of Euro-pean NUTS 2 regions facilitates the identification of similar challenges and solutions and enables to compare the various impacts of different regional policies in the context of social and economic cohesion.