Politicians in Lestij?rvi thought they had the answer to Finland’s demographic woes: each mother of a newborn baby would receive €1,000 a year for 10 years if they stayed in the Nordic country’s second-smallest municipality.
But more than a decade after they introduced the payments, and over €400,000 poorer, officials were forced to concede defeat: Lestij?rvi’s population has shrunk by a fifth since the scheme started.
“It wasn’t worth doing at all,” said Niko Aihio, the town’s former head of education. “The baby boom only lasted one year.”
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