Nordic project on cross-border mobility and benefits
The Nordic project on cross-border mobility and benefits, i.e. “Nordic Mobility”, is a joint Nordic project coordinated by Statistics Finland. The project is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Background
The project was started in 2016 when Finland held the presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The project is one of seven so-called priority projects started during the presidency. There is a long history of freedom of movement across Nordic country borders and the Nordic Region has had a joint labour market since the 1950s. Exchanges of labour are still important today, especially in the border areas. This occurrence cannot however be described by official statistics, since cross-border statistics require the coupling of registry data of two countries. The aim of the project is to produce statistics describing the occurrence relating to known obstacles of freedom of movement in the Nordic Region.
Execution
All Nordic statistical offices are taking part in the project: Statistiska centralbyrån in Sweden, Statistisk sentralbyrå in Norway, Danmarks Statistik in Denmark and Hagstofa Íslands in Iceland.
Objectives
The objective of the project is to develop and produce statistics describing the movement of people in the Nordic Region. The chosen statistical areas are migration, employment and commuting, attendance in education and completed education. In addition, the project will establish the possibility of producing statistics on social benefits paid to another Nordic country and on the mobility aspects of businesses.
Statistics describing cross-border mobility have been produced before, but this is the first ever production which will provide cross-border statistics from all Nordic countries.
Results
The results will be published in Nordic Statistics in 2021.
Further information
Project Manager Kaija Ruotsalainen, telephone +358 (0) 29 551 3599
Senior Adviser Nicola Brun, telephone +38 (0) 29 551 3590
firstname.lastname@stat.fi
The Nordic Council of Ministers – Freedom of Movement
Finns commute most to Sweden (News 3 March 2021)
News 10.2.2017: The Nordic Mobility project
Data exchange between the Nordic countries improves the image of Finland’s level of education