How the Faroe Islands reversed a brain drain
The small community found a big answer to an ageing population crisis
There’s a question that sooner or later confronts those who grow up in a small community: do I stay, or do I go? The overwhelming number of people across Europe that stump for the latter are leaving large swaths of some countries completely hollowed out. Latvia has lost a third of its population in three decades, Bulgaria is on track to lose a fifth of its people by 2050 and some areas in the Scottish Highlands are now emptier than Lapland. It’s a challenge that’s far easier to acknowledge than to address: how do you create an environment that doesn’t just keep people in it but draws back those who have left? The Faroe Islands, a self-governing Danish territory of 18 islands and about 55,000 people in the North Atlantic, could provide an answer.
Two decades ago, the islands were grappling with steady depopulation. Between 2004 and 2013, more than 2,700 residents under the age of 40 left the Faroes. As in so many peripheral regions, young people sought education and opportunity abroad without reason to return. Yet, by 2022, that trend had not only reversed – but swung back dramatically. The number of under-40s rose by 3,000 in just nine years, a youth boom that has left the Faroes with a median age of 37.1, making it demographically younger than any country in the EU.
So how did they do it? The first step was to enhance connectivity. Building world-class undersea tunnels has made opportunity a two-way street. The Faroese capital, Tórshavn, is now within easy commuting distance of the archipelago’s 17 inhabited islands and smaller villages are now accessible to new residents and visitors, breathing life and money into once-isolated communities. Alongside this, record-breaking 5G speeds – among the fastest in Europe – make remote working feasible even from the most blustery headland.
Coupled with ambitious pro-family funding – a year of paid leave, heavily subsidised childcare and affordable housing – the Faroes have substantially eased the economic pressures that often drive people to bigger foreign cities.
The final element, which is less tangible but equally crucial, is a cultural shift. The islands have a self-assurance that has allowed them to step out of the Danish shadow. While local pride has always been strong – more than 90 per cent of residents speak Faroese as a first language – it’s now more visible. On shop shelves and in pubs, local beer, whisky and even soft drinks regularly outsell global brands. When citizens see ambitious infrastructure being built, generous support for families and investment in local enterprise, they want in.
The Faroes’ transformation is remarkable but it raises questions about whether such success can be replicated. Its circumstances are hard to ignore: it’s small, socially cohesive and wealthy, with a GDP per capita of €61,800 (double the EU average). The economy also leans heavily on fishing rights and subsidies from Denmark, providing access to the EU’s markets and research funding. But these are advantages, not magic bullets. Young Faroese once packed their bags for the same reasons as their European peers: a shortage of opportunity.
Perhaps the Faroes’ most striking marker of success is that it makes no attempt to keep its young people at home. Instead, they’re encouraged to gain experience abroad, confident that most will return. For communities everywhere, the question isn’t whether they can replicate the Faroese model. It’s how they can apply its core principle: creating a place so strong in identity and opportunity that it trusts its people to return once they’ve exercised their wanderlust.
Joseph Phelan is a freelance journalist based in London. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.
