http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5816-3361
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ABSTRACT
Creating liveable cities is a policy priority, especially for cities that are experiencing population loss. A decline in the number of inhabitants is commonly associated with low levels of residential satisfaction. However, such a supposition does not often find empirical support in shrinking cities. In the present study, we identify variables that influence the level of residential satisfaction, as well as those influencing residential attraction (captured by the intention of current residents to leave their city in the near future). The study is based on a face-to-face questionnaire administered to 701 residents in four shrinking Portuguese cities. As expected, lower levels of residential satisfaction lead to an increased intention to leave the city. The results also show that the variables explaining residential satisfaction mostly differ from those explaining residential attractiveness. The specific characteristics of each city influence citizens’ assessment of residential satisfaction, but the variables impacting residential attractiveness are universal.
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors and by national funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology under project EXPL/ATP-EUR/0464/2013 entitled ‘Policy guidelines for regeneration in shrinking cities’.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Ana Paula Barreira http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5816-3361
Luís Catela Nunes http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8115-6223
Maria Helena Guimarães http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6904-3696
Thomas Panagopoulos http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8073-2097
Notes
1 Details can be found in Panagopoulos et al. (Citation2015).