Localising and globalising the depopulation dividend: theory and evidence from three countries in three world regions

We bring together evidence from three countries in differing world regions to ask whether or how depopulation is delivering socio-environmental gains – what we call a ‘depopulation dividend’. We first discuss the depopulation problem itself and introduce the idea of a ‘depopulation dividend’, and we present research on national and sub-national depopulation processes in each country, beginning with demographic and environmental change in Japan. Following that we introduce socio-economic outcomes in Spain and New Zealand. Overall, we present a positive perspective on

depopulation – an issue that is usually presented in the negative – and we localize and globalize Japan’s, Spain’s, and New Zealand’s experiences therein.