Why do you think there are many small towns/villages in Europe that are dying, but not in The UK?

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MaleficentAnalysis27@reddit

I'm from Spain. The villages I know that have done this are in remote areas with no transport links or shops in miles. Often close to the mountains. Obviously not great job choice in nearby areas.. It'sa life style that only suit a few. I don't know the whole of the UK but most areas seem very accessible and never too far away from a big town or city. Not sure, correct me if I'm wrong!

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Satansrideordie@reddit

Yeah as a Brit who lived in Spain, remote in Spain is a whole different thing from England.
You can think you’re so close to a major city but the lack of public transport, even road access drops off very quick.
Also, in England even in remote areas they have their local shops and amenities albeit very small.
In Spain you can be in a built up residential remote area but you will have to drive to even get to a local shop.
Which as a foreigner who can’t drink tap water can be a real hassle

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P-l-Staker@reddit

I grew up in Greece. Wanna see remote? How you'd like a swim to get to the nearest city?

There are literally islands that are just 1 tiny village on a sun-scorched rock, and that's about it.

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ambergresian@reddit

There are villages like this with the Scottish isles too. Minus the sun.

I visited a more popular one (still small), and they said they send their kids to the mainland for school for the week, and then they just come home for the weekend! Very different life.

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blackberry_sorbet@reddit

I don't understand why people choose to raise children on these tiny islands. They must be exhausted with all the travel to get anywhere. And it can't be a very mentally stimulating environment when you can walk around your whole island in a few hours.

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DameKumquat@reddit

On the plus side, when everyone knows everyone, parents feel able to let their children roam, which conversely gives them more freedom than many city children - how often do you roam more than an hour from home, really?

And then for secondary they go to school on the mainland, often being weekly boarders especially in the winter months.

You plan your life around weekly deliveries to the shop / anything you've ordered, and have enough supplies to be prepared if you're cut off for a few weeks. Maybe you travel to the mainland a couple times a year for clothes shopping and the like, in the same way anyone in a small village or town goes to the city.

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Slight-Blackberry813@reddit

Everyone knows everyone on Pitcairn….

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lost_send_berries@reddit

🤢

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ctesibius@reddit

Iona is a special case. There’s a religious community centred on the reconstructed abbey, and I imagine that some people are there for that (although most members are distribute over the world). Somewhere like Foula might be more difficult to explain, but I’m not sure that there are children there.

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SuuperD@reddit

It's not alwaya a choice.

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farraigemeansthesea@reddit

Some are parents to children with autism, with the hectic environment of an inner city being too overstimulating for them. Many move to the Highlands for this very reason, as nature is known to have a positive impact on ASD people.

Others may simply not like city living themselves.

There is also the third kind, who are baffled at people wanting to bring up a family in cramped, polluted conditions.

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DLaing1978@reddit

I think it's more of a case of not knowing any different.

I lived for a couple of years on Shetland so I kind of understand this.

I then moved back to a small village in rural scotland where I finished growing up (was there before Shetland)

My parents uprooted me when I was in my late teens and I found the process stressful. I was not financially stable to go on my own yet.

I'm glad it happened though because when I eventually settled I had a more varied life with more experiences but God did I go kicking and screaming.

I think the smaller your world (and I'm not criticizing people in this situation) the smaller you feel comfortable with.

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BernicianScot@reddit

Just say Iona! Very identifiable from your description.

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ambergresian@reddit

haha yes I did say that in another comment!

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Dependent_One6034@reddit

And I imagine they have better opportunities since it's still a tourist destination.

That's part of the problem. Non residents of said country buying properties for use as air bnbs or similar.

So the house isn't "lived in" it's occupied for a few months a year, the very few local shops and other business one might use often that are there don't gain anything from the property being dormant.

So basically it turns into a bit of a black whole, where whoever owns the property is earning money, the gov are getting their taxes, but the local environment sees very little gain/growth.

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ambergresian@reddit

I purposely avoid Airbnb and stay at hotels for this reason. But yes! it's definitely a problem

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P-l-Staker@reddit

And I imagine they have better opportunities since it's still a tourist destination. There are many more without that struggling.

If we're talking about these Greek islands, then no. Those specific islands I was referring to are not a tourist destination at all. There is literally nothing there for anybody, and that includes tourists.

But yeah, I hear similar stories from Scotland. There was a guy down here in the Midlands who I worked with and was only here for the season. He said he comes down every winter for work and then heads back up. Can't quite remember where it was.

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Additional_Egg_6685@reddit

I remember going on a boat trip to I think it’s called Nisteros from Kos and there was this village we visited which was right on the rim of the volcano that had like 7 residents, not a single shop or restaurant, most of the houses were abandoned and I believe there’s no running water on that island. I still don’t understand it 😂

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Vimto1@reddit

My wife and I holiday on Halki, 330 residents until summer when it might double. There's also an army base which must be the easiest posting ever 🤣

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P-l-Staker@reddit

There's also an army base which must be the easiest posting ever 🤣

Hate to say it, but no it doesn't. Unless you're from Rhodes and can pop there for a bit on your leave.

You're on the border.
Miles away from what would likely be your home.
There is fuck-all on the island you're currently stationed.

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Vimto1@reddit

It's not actually on a border and having spoken to a few of the soldiers stationed there, I can confirm that it is considered one of the easiest postings

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Routine_Ad1823@reddit

Luxury!

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tunanunabhuna@reddit

I got back from Greece recently and went on a boat trip to a few of these islands. My partner and I were so confused what happens with the emergency services for these places!

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P-l-Staker@reddit

Great question! Best case scenario, you'll have a helicopter come pick you up and take you to the mainland (or other nearby island) for treatment. You may also have a token medical facility if the settlement is large enough. It'd basically be like 1 doctor with some basic kit. If it's far enough away, or if they can't get to you in time, you sadly die.

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BillWilberforce@reddit

Also Tesco and the other stores deliver virtually everywhere. You may only be able to get a delivery on say a Wednesday morning there. But they will do it, everywhere or virtually everywhere on the "mainland". Islands like Skye they may just deliver to the port and you have to pick up your goods from the van as soon as the boat unloads or arrange alternative storage/delivery. As the van is going back to the mainland on the boats return journey. So it's not hanging around, to go all the way round the houses.

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NaeNeckNaeBother@reddit

Skye's had a bridge to the mainland for the past 30 years

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BillWilberforce@reddit

Oh of course, however the van still doesn't go around the island, just to one spot on Portree, with Morrisons doing the same. I imagine the same is true on the other islands.

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FoodAccomplished7858@reddit

So you get a delivery from van Morrison? Bet he’s really grumpy.

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Routine_Ad1823@reddit

I saw so many supermarket vans when I did a tour of the Highlands

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PennyBunPudding@reddit

Why can't you drink tap water?

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ScumBucket33@reddit

Quite often travellers diarrhoea can be acquired from the tap water which can be contaminated by bacteria that the locals are used to but can make foreigners sick.

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PennyBunPudding@reddit

Right. But European water is clean as f and if you are living in that country you really should just acclimatise rather than having to buy plastic bottles forever

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Slight-Blackberry813@reddit

So here’s where all of you are close to the issue but not nailing it on the head. The issue is that “cold” water isn’t cold. That’s what troubles British people. It’s the sensation of not cold “cold” tap water that puts them off.

Somewhere along the line foreigners suggested it’s because British idiots don’t trust foreign water or that European standards aren’t as good but objectively and I’ll dig up the entire PHD paper on this topic when I get a chance it’s because British people travel to warm climates on holiday, are used to genuinely cold tap water in general and therefore you end up with this made up idea that’s it bigotry and superiority rather than the simpler explanation.

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baconhammock69@reddit

But not all of Europe has equally clean water, as Europe isn’t a small place and made up of dozens of countries.

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gensererme@reddit

EU drinking water standards are pretty strict, so all of Europe does have safe drinking water.

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alexllew@reddit

Basically all of those countries have clean drinking water everywhere, including all of Spain. You might encounter a rare exception on a remote Greek island or something but there would always be warnings if that's the case.

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Dependent_One6034@reddit

The spring water is clean as F. Sure.

But the tap water in many places is not, should be boiled.

In our village in Greece there is a tap in the village square which is direct fresh spring water from the mountains, and you are correct - it doesn't get better than that.

But the tap water fed to houses is not that. I think it's the same spring water, but sits in a tank before you open your taps, rather than being fresh from the source.

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Eddie_Honda420@reddit

It's carrying the shit that a pia

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Beancounter_1968@reddit

Dont get it

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Dependent_One6034@reddit

that a pia

I assume pain in the arse.

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Beancounter_1968@reddit

Thanks.

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Dependent_One6034@reddit

You're not wrong. We had a little sack barrow to move them. But sometimes a swarm finds the water source, literally 10's of thousands of bees out for a drink, the locals seemed to just walk through the swarm, fill up and walk away - I turn around and say fuck that.

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Darkheart001@reddit

There is an actually a better solution than buying 6 packs. I live in a country where the tap water isn’t drinkable and the answer is to buy a water cooler then you can use the 5 gallon drum containers. These cost about £10 to buy but you can get them refilled for about £2. Often you can get them delivered too, although that will cost a little more.

3-4 5 gallon drums will keep you going for at least a couple of weeks at a time as long as you are just drinking it.

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callisstaa@reddit

Yeah this is the best way. I lived in Asia so the bottles were a lot cheaper but you would message the water guy and he bring a bottle to your u it which you would pay for and hand over your empty one. You would see trucks full of them being taken to be sterilized and refilled.

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Captains_Parrot@reddit

Doesn't even have to be a bacteria thing. I'm from an area with incredibly soft water. When I go to London I have to drink bottled water because it gives me the shits.

Dunno if it's a hard vs soft thing but that's the only thing my uninformed brain can think of.

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malakambla@reddit

Idk what it is about London water but I've got really hard water at home in Poland, and yet London completely sucks out all life from my hair every time.

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Captains_Parrot@reddit

Jesus yes. Water in London is horrendous for your hair. Mine goes from being greasy 2 days after washing it where I live to straw after being in London.

It's very strange.

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gensererme@reddit

This is nonsense that so many British people seem to believe. Spain isn’t some backwater and drinking water is treated to high standards, including disinfecting.

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Satansrideordie@reddit

Hurts the belly

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callisstaa@reddit

And the soil pipe.

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Duementon@reddit

i was born in a village in the uk with no shops, no public transport, and about 1.5 hours from the nearest city. town 15 mins drive away

and to top it off, this village a house costs 650k+

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Cantabulous_@reddit

Yes, there are a lot of villages without amenities now. I grew up in one with a school, pub, general store (with post office), butchers and bakery. Now there’s just the pub, and the school - which only survived because all of the neighbouring village schools closed. It’s picturesque, and expensive, but you need to drive or get deliveries.

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BillyJoeDubuluw@reddit

To be fair, you are putting a bit too much emphasis on “England” while also identifying as a Brit.

The north of Scotland is another matter…

As a Brit who has also lived in Spain I do agree with your wider point, though… England is too densely populated to ever really be remote…

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Satansrideordie@reddit

I can’t speak for Scotland when I’ve never been..
I can speak for England as I live here

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BillyJoeDubuluw@reddit

Re-read my comment and my point is right there mate 🙂👍

In any case, agree fully per Spain having lived there.

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Satansrideordie@reddit

I never said it wasn’t? I said I can’t comment on Scotland mate

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foundalltheworms@reddit

To be fair, this is dependent on where you’ve been in England. I’m from a village and not even that remote, we don’t have any shops or buses, just a pub and that’s not that unusual.

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LycheeSilent4571@reddit

I’m from a remote village in Cumbria. I can still get to London in back in a day. Tiring but doable 😂

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LolaWithTheGreenEyes@reddit

Yes, we are a very small country. The most remote would be parts of Scotland and thats probably more to do with the midges.

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Millefeuille-coil@reddit

Franco kicked it off in rural Spain as he forced urbanisation after the civil war forcing some rural communities into towns

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Living-Excuse1370@reddit

This is the same in Italy, remote mountain locations. I live in such a place, cars can't even get into the village, so it's peaceful and clean, it gained many more residents after the pandemic. And for a tiny place of 100 it has a remarkably diverse population,Brits, Dutch,Ukraine, Tunisian, Italian (obviously) Mainly though the houses in these locations are being bought up by foreigners, Germans, Dutch, Brits especially love these locations. It's sad to think that so many of these little villages and towns, just 50 years ago were bustling communities.

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BrillsonHawk@reddit

I'd add that Spain has a very low population for its size. The population density for both France and Spain is far lower than it is in the UK, so you are more likely to have remote areas with nobody in them.

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jonewer@reddit

The population of Spain is also very uneven, leaving vast swathes of the country extremely sparsely populated

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Eddie_Honda420@reddit

Its the same in Italy. You need to move for a job ,that's the simple truth .

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dbxp@reddit

There are some in the UK dying just in the north east and Wales and no one cares about them

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lost-in-midgard@reddit

The UK has a housing shortage.

https://cps.org.uk/media/post/2025/uk-housing-gap-stands-6-5-million-homes-finds-cps/

I wouldn't look further than that.

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ScarcityBackground12@reddit

We were recently in a dying village in Portugal it was in the mountainous area and it was remote. I think it’s generally a lack of infrastructure. There were no public transportation links, no high street, no jobs, no healthcare. Not even a basic convenience store in the village. Closest shops were about a 20-25 minute drive and from my understanding it used to take longer on the local roads before the new roads and highway were built a few years ago.

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BillyJoeDubuluw@reddit

Whenever something generally doesn’t apply to the south of England we overlook the whole of Britain in the process…

People always forget the Scottish Highlands and Islands… They are very remote and have “advertised for residents” on occasion…

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Jumpy-Persimmon-7954@reddit

Yeah try west Cumbria. Bleak doesn't cut it

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Grotbagsthewonderful@reddit

People always forget the Scottish Highlands and Islands… They are very remote and have “advertised for residents” on occasion…

Yeah we've all seen the Wicker man, nobody's going to fall for that again.

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SpeedConstant109@reddit

See also : the heatwave this weekend. Hot in London doesn't mean the whole country is having a heatwave.

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Big_Daymo@reddit

Yep. I live in Northern Scotland and it's a pretty comfortable 17 degrees here right now, but posts on the UK subs are like "How can we all (yes all of us Brits) survive this 30 degree nightmare?".

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ambergresian@reddit

Yeah there are plenty of remote islands and villages up here. Beautiful areas. But very little amenities, jobs, and difficult access.

I visited Iona, which has tourist reasons for visiting so it's not the most neglected of islands. But they said that they send their children to the mainland for the full week for school, and then they come home on the weekend! Crazy different lifestyle.

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U9365@reddit

Well the Welsh Gov seems determined to make their own rural villages die out.

The villages were constructed mostly to do with agricultural or mining industries both of which have ceased. Many are down 10 miles of single track road with a dodgy broadband, no mobile and half a TV signal. Not surprisingly the resident Welsh do not want to live there.

So the reality is that the ONLY market for them is accomodiation for the tourist sector. So along comes a second home owner, spends more on the property than the previous owner did in 30 years, uses next to no council services at all.....and what does the council do? rather than thanks for all the work given to local businesses and savings to the council they stuff them with a second home mega penal charge!!

Eventually all of these owners may abandon them as they are unsellable to locals (which is why the original local owner sold to a outsider for a second home/Air BNB!) and the council will end up like those in Italy etc offering houses for 50p if only someone would move in permenantly and wondering why there are no takers.

The world has moved on just like town centre and the dying high street. The places such as Wales, Scotland, Lake District only have tourism as a selling point as their transport and other infrastructure does not favour business. So start encouraging it not hindering it just might be a good idea.

Oh yes and no one wants to move to Wales when they find out that there are compulsory Welsh lessons in Schools for their children - how exactly does that help their child's future global employability?

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noodledoodledoo@reddit

There are a lot of small towns and villages that are dying in the UK. Some are populated almost wholly by retired people. Some are full of holiday lets instead of homes. Some don't exist any more because they're close enough to the nearest urban centre to get absorbed. Some are just dying the same way as in Italy or Spain. I don't think that the issue is much bigger in Italy or Spain, you just hear about it less here because of things like the Italian 1€ house scheme.

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Any-Republic-4269@reddit

This! Lots and lots of villages are dying because houses that once had families in are lived in by retired couples or are Airbnbs. Schools, shops, pubs are closing at alarming rates

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algbop@reddit

Yep you’re right! Everyone’s home was built in someone else’s view

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The_Blip@reddit

The real issue is cost. Specifically: the cost of simply existing. I live in a small village, there used to be a pub and a corner store. The cost for these places to simply exist just became far too great. The overheads made it unaffordable. Used to be that such places could just exist without much economic pressure forcing them to generate revenue. The local village would go in once in a while and they'd make enough money to cover their expenses and live off of.

Now we have no shop or pub. The nearest town over's pub is also closing. You have to go into town to do anything. Really kills the community.

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DaveBeBad@reddit

And they NIMBY any development then complain when the school closes…

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Nuthetes@reddit

I agree, NIMBYism is a massive issue. But I do find it ironic that every poster here would be a Nimby if they owned a small cottage on the edge of a village with a nice view of the country and there were plans to build a massive housing estate there or plans to tear up the woodland and put a new ring road 100 feet from their house.

People mock Nimbys, but the vast majority of people would become Nimbys themselves if it was their property.

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spitamenes@reddit

It depends. Are you going to build thousands of shitty detached new builds as far as the eye can see (which, unfortunately, seems to be the way the UK is going), or are you going to build high density townhouses and flats with mixed use and commercial areas, parks and green spaces, and public transport links?

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Motherofvampires@reddit

You don't get those kind of new builds in villages because the public transport and commercial interest isn't there to support it.

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eairy@reddit

People want detached houses with a green space for their kids and room to park their car. Most people don't like having to put up with noisy neighbours and arguing over street parking.

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spitamenes@reddit

Yes, which is why we have awful American style suburban sprawl

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XihuanNi-6784@reddit

You're exaggerating in these people's favour because you've picked a very specific person with a direct direct impact. A solid chunk of NIMBYs are not directly affected, their house is on the other side of the village and won't be visually affected, but they join the NIMBY cause anyway.

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Nuthetes@reddit

But they are still afffected though.

If I bought a house in a nice, quiet, peaceful village I wouldn't want another 1,000 houses built in it and the issues--extra traffic, more crowding, more noise, more pollution, more crime that an extra 1,000+ residents will bring. Not to mention the once pleasant, picturesque village becoming an eyesore with cheap new builds.

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redem@reddit

Yeah, who needs new jobs and life coming into their dying community. Build that somewhere else, just not in my back yard.

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memcwho@reddit

There is a difference between can't see the houses from their house and not affected, though.

Schools, Drs, etc. Plus traffic.

Near me there are several large estates that have been built in my lifetime, they use the same school I went to, there is 1 new doctors surgery. I have no issues getting an appointment when I need one, and I don't have kids, so moot point for me.

BUT, the estates all have 1, maybe 2 entrances. This means that the traffic must use the existing local roads AND they, all use cut throughs and clog up the main streets without their own streets becoming rat runs as there is no through route. Fine, fair enough most of the time. Until there's roadworks, an accident or similar. All of that extra traffic now just completely jams up a square mile of roads with absolutely 0 wiggle room for locals to get out of the way with a back route.

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No-Championship9542@reddit

I live in the countryside and I support anyone doing with their land what they want, if I don't own it it's none of my buisness and I would never care what they do. The idea that I would complain about infrastructure or progress seems insane, the more development the more opportunities for making money will happen for me.

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ambergresian@reddit

This is why I bought a house next to a cemetery. Don't need to be a NIMBY, cemetery does that job for me!

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ranchitomorado@reddit

It's easy to be anti NIMBYism on reddit when the development is 100s of miles away doesn't affect you.

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Nyxrinne@reddit

Younger people contribute to this too — there's a modern lifestyle element that impacts village shops just like urban highstreets. I live rurally and don't support my nearest village at all; Tesco delivers our groceries and we order most other things online. I haven't been to the local shops more than three times since I moved here a decade ago.

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coffeeebucks@reddit

Would you like to use them more or does convenience just win out? I’m not rural but I am in the ‘burbs and during the lockdowns I had no choice but to explore locally, after spending the previous ten years just driving in and out again to the places I already knew. I did find some gems

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Apprehensive_Plum755@reddit

Whilst I understand what you're saying, it's not really the same thing. When these properties eventually come up for sale they will be bought, not just left as a ghost town. They may be bought by rental companies, so I see the point being made in terms of the village community dying, but it's different to those deserted towns in Europe

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Specialist-Mud-6650@reddit

Yeah. Some aging holiday village in Northumbria is not the same as what's happening in rural Spain, where literally less people live their year by year.

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AndyVale@reddit

My sister lives deep down into Cornwall. When I visit her in Winter, we see villages that basically cease to exist for months. Everything is shut or boarded up, barely more than the odd dog walker.

Then I see the same place in Summer and it's packed.

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siciidkfidneb@reddit

What's the scheme in Wales? U

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Jerico_Hill@reddit

"Grants of up to £25,000 are available to renovate empty properties to make them safe to live in and improve their energy efficiency."

It's on the gov.wales website. I know it's not as good as it was, but google still works.

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fearghaz@reddit

I remember at one point there were homes available in stoke for a quid.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-22247663

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SplurgyA@reddit

Houses into Homes. You can get a grant of up to £25k and an interest free loan of up to £250k to renovate a house that's been empty for at least 6 months

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Both_Ticket2026@reddit

I went to Robin Hoods bay recently and it's absolutely lovely but is just holiday homes, kind of depressing really

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UltimateGammer@reddit

My local town had homes going for £1 if you committed to doing them up.

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eesmash@reddit

immigration

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unclear_warfare@reddit

Population density, at least in southern England. The cities are close enough together that the towns and villages in between are close enough to commute, so that means people don't need to move away for work

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Dependent-Panic-9457@reddit

Cotswolds has villages that sort of look remote but are basically 2 hours from Chelsea, if that.

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andrew0256@reddit

We are a small well connected country with a growing population. You might find dieing villages in the Scottish highlands and islands where the roads aren't good and ferries unreliable, plus they're miles away from anywhere.

Also what is a dieing village. One with no industry, not on the tourist trail with derelict houses? That's what you might think. But what about those with no facilities or pub? One that may have lots of well kept houses but are empty most of the year, or one that gets loads of tourists for 6 months and then no one?

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UnableAd457@reddit

The UK is not very big, but has similar population to France.

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who-gives-a@reddit

Every village in the UK has at least 1 corner shop.

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decentlyfair@reddit

They do not, source I lived in one.

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RegurgitatedOwlJuice@reddit

I’m in the UK in a “dying place”. Rich English people turning it into their second home place doesn’t help.

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isarmn@reddit

the ones in the uk are dying too.... look at any highstreet

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amanset@reddit

Population density.

The UK is the fourth most densely populated country in Europe - and that is including Scotland and Wales that are remarkably less densely populated than England.

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tandemxylophone@reddit

Areas with lack of commute are dying. It's the effect of late stage Capitalism that happened to Japan, South Korea, now it's happening in Europe.

The economic market becomes concentrated into cities as big companies outcompete the inefficiency of little towns (check out the book Why Nations Fails to understand more). Travel barrier can act as a natural tariff, but supermarket chains have a larger distance reach than the village locals.

To find work, you need to be in the economically viable zone. There are towns that are close enough to benefit from these areas, in which case you can appreciate a quaint village vibe. Otherwise, you have a destitute town where nobody has work.

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Wgh555@reddit

Yeah they need to push work from home more to allow people to life further out

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TheMusicArchivist@reddit

You'd think digital nomads who wanted to settle somewhere with a school would chose these picturesque towns.

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TheMusicArchivist@reddit

Britain has rather consistent density. It's rare to be more than an hour away from a major city.

In Spain you can be a six-hour drive from a major city halfway up a mountain that freezes in winter and has no jobs in summer except for bartender and hotel cleaner.

I have been tempted by some of those £100,000 four-bed houses with six acres of land and a swimming pool a ten minute drive away through a stunning forest from a TGV station that takes an hour to get to Paris/Bordeaux. I could make it work, if I was allowed to move to France and if I could persuade my spouse. Our business is online/post and it's likely possible to manage it anywhere in the world. I could basically retire there and live off the interest from selling this UK house, and I'm under 40.

But if you're growing up there, all you want is to go to uni in a big city and feel alive and then you stay there because it has everything you want.

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AuroraDF@reddit

In the highlands there are places that are struggling partly under the weight of unoccupied second homes. I am a teacher, and when I worked in the highlands 25 years ago there were always properties to rent, just like everywhere else. Now, you look at rural highland teaching jobs, and there is no where you can rent to live because all the rentals have vecome second homes. (the council will help out teachers moving to remote areas, thankfully, but it's restrictive). A village can't thrive on occasional residents who only visit a few weeks a year.

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toughfluffer@reddit

Same in Wales, same in Cornwall anywhere picturesque to an English person is in danger of becoming a seasonal ghost town by second home ownership. I don't really know what the solution is apart from banning air bnb and legally limiting home ownership for non residents.

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Appropriate_Data4991@reddit

Not sure that's entirely true. Live together n a small market town that used to have 12 pubs, was 6 when we moved here now there's 3. Population stable but a lot of smaller places are dying, slowly. Nice villages full of retirees, families priced out and schools and village shops shutting. It's worse before n the national parks where every other house is a holiday home.

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Ok-Cod8582@reddit

I personally believe that the reason has been that british try and move themselves up in the market in past decades. Living in one house for a short while before moving to a nicer house or better area. The goal for a lot of English people is to move to a quaint little country home to relax and retire etc...then then houses at the lower end of the scale are purchased by people just getting on to the housing market amd the cycle starts again. However housing prices and the decline in british birthrates might put a strain on this now

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Advanced_Phrase4557@reddit

Various groups have been campaigning for this for a while now. It's shocking how many places do not have even a single bin https://www.businesswaste.co.uk/your-waste/sanitary-waste/male-sanitary-waste-bins/

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vercety1@reddit

Errtrttrrrrrrrrrrrr too ttgttgttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttfttrttttttfttttttrttttttrtttrttdrtfttttttttTttttrtftrtfrtrTtfrtttrttttfTtdtttrtftRrffrfrfttttttttttfttTfrrtttrttrttTtRtrdRttTttttttttttttf far ttTtDrsTtdrrtttrfrTttttTrttttttdtttttTtttTtTtrrttttttrTtttTtttTtttTtTfttttttstttr Far tatt I can get Frfttttf Dr d THE same zz

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Daveddozey@reddit

We spend a fortune on keeping cash flowing through Generation Me, who don’t need to live near cities for work, and can thus keep a rural economy of garden centres going.

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udesh_perera@reddit

They are more integrated to the community

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MR_MaxiMor44@reddit

I think this is when the relative smallness of our country helps. we are 40% the size of France, 50% the size of Spain, and 83% the size of Italy with a greater population than all three, there are some relatively empty parts of the country like North Wales, the Highlands, the border, Eastern England / East Anglia, But they aren't that far from populated areas. We are kinda more similar to Germany and the Low Land countries in that regard, with sizeable settlements in between the large urban conglomerates.

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_1489555458biguy@reddit

We have that BUT. The UK has lots of properties owned through Leasehold.

Here if someone dies without an heir, the vacant property often reverts to some member of the British upper classes. They're not in the habit of giving freebies.

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terahurts@reddit

Tiny island + a reasonable good road network let people commute and small towns/villages are seen as desirable places to live here.

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eairy@reddit

Britain is the 9th largest island in the world. This "tiny island" BS is a racist dogwhistle.

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truckosaurus_UK@reddit

Indeed. England is so densely populated that people will pay a premium to live in quiet rural areas.

There's not too many places that aren't in commuting distance of a sizeable town.

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Programmer-Severe@reddit

I wouldn't say tiny, you can drive for 12 hours plus in a reasonably straight line and still be on it, but I agree with your other points. It's fairly densely populated, so most villages are relatively close to towns

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Mintyxxx@reddit

It's the 8th largest island in the world with almost 80 million people on it. It's odd when people call it small.

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Danielharris1260@reddit

I’ve always been confused about people saying we’re a tiny island not really we’re in the top 25 globally for population and a major economy and even geographically the UK is in the middle for land area.

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RightlyKnightly@reddit

England is too small to have ghost towns or villages. Pretty much anywhere is good enough for residential at least. You just end up with decayed husks of towns - i.e. Keighley near me - should be a ghost town but can't be as still useful for, say, Leeds.

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coffeeebucks@reddit

Keighley is grim

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EUskeptik@reddit

Perhaps the UK, with an economy dominated by service industries, has been able to embrace working from home (WFH) on a much bigger scale. Rural areas with good WiFi and 4G/5G mobile phone coverage mean a significant number of people can live almost anywhere and still work effectively. There’s even Starlink satellite WiFi if the land lines don’t provide enough bandwidth.

In economies that lean more towards agriculture, remote towns in Italy and Spain suffer because they don’t offer well paid jobs (or any jobs) for young people so they leave for the cities.

-##-

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Daicalon@reddit

there are plenty of villages in Wales that are now dead due to holiday homes. Prices to higher for locals, school closes, lack of foundational economy jobs as a consequence. They are a scourge on our landscape.

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PresentEfficiency807@reddit

Go to County Durham…

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honkballs@reddit

Because we are a small country so small villages are often just a short drive to places.

Add mass migration to that resulting in a lack of housing.

There's your answer.

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Park_the_bus_@reddit

There will be some ghost towns in the UK But many of the, even tired, dilapidated towns will, over time, be migrated into from the bigger towns and cities, by workers and families, as populations grow and the small towns around generally become spread into. Just looks at demographics. 20 years ago there were no diverse communities in small British towns. Now the towns surrounding the cities represent the demographics more in line with those in their neighbouring cities. No one said, wow, I'm going to move across the world to this small town in England. They "aim" for the city and then the reality of housing and expenses etc means they land in these surrounding towns, so the town population changes, but is renewed

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RichestTeaPossible@reddit

Maybe our small villages died in the industrialisation and land-clearances of the 1800’s. The ones that survived were well placed for practical reasons, transport, energy.

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Jpmoz999@reddit

You can’t eat a view.

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SeriousDepth5793@reddit

view until new builds spoil it .

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holdupflash@reddit

Pretty sure it’s just proximity to towns and cities. There are lots of beautiful little villages in Staffordshire and Cheshire, but at most you are 20-30 mins from a city or town which is code for employment or transport to employment’. Have seen small Spanish and French villages die because they’ve not had either the infrastructure or proximity to places where people can earn a living. The young move out and the old die off. Then those locations become the subject of property tv shows.

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Spartancfos@reddit

You can get paid to live on the outer islands on Scotland.

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Sensitive_snausage@reddit

My parents are from the forth valley in Scotland and the entire area feels like it is dying.

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TooNGooN89@reddit

In the UK our towns have become shit so people tend to stay local. Town centres are grotty and full of chavs, villages are much more pleasant and generally chav free, so people will happily go there to pick up odds and ends or have a meal out.

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Alexander-Wright@reddit

Immigration.

Our population is increasing; more people require housing, and more people equates to keeping local shops open.

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Psittacula2@reddit

Agree 2000 UK population was approx 59m and with mass immigration it is closer to 75m in 2026 using a range of measures official and unofficial as underreporting is highly likely.

That is basically visually x2 New Londons 8-9m x2 more!

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Sea_Pomegranate8229@reddit

Evidently you don't get out much because if you did then you would know that the UK has entire areas that are dying.

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BalthazarOfTheOrions@reddit

UK is more accessible in terms of size, geography and infrastructure.

Also I'm not entirely persuaded that the smaller villagers in the UK also aren't dying out - probably just at a slower rate.

Such a shame isn't it, I find small town / village life so much more charming and pleasant than a frenetic city life.

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RandomPi31@reddit

The EU administration

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alsencon@reddit

Capitalism

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EeEmCeTo@reddit

English people love retiring in the countryside. It is their dream. They talk about it all their working life. They buy second homes there. Some move there when they have kids. It’s where they can have a wisteria garden, drink Pimm’s in summer, and their neighbor is Mrs Marple. Best is the village also has a Lords manor, so they can brag about this to their friends. Once these rich city dwellers have moved there they don’t need anything else. They don’t need public transport or local shops since they have huge SUVs to go shopping at the nearest hypermarket. They don’t need schools since their kids are grown up working in the city to earn enough money to retire in a village. This keeps villages alive in the UK, and property prices expensive, even if they have the same transport or amenity issues as the dying villages in places in Europe. And the locals who grew up there? Best if they are not seen.

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Hot_Photograph_5928@reddit

Because in uk we have a tradition of moving to the country when we retire our when we have children to escape crime and grime.

There is a constant demand from wealthy mid lifers and retired people for village life. Which brings demand back to the villages

In Europe prime trend to stay put when they have kids or retire.

Walk around London and it's obvious. Old people and children are very under represented.

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Samurai___@reddit

In Europe - at least where I'm familiar with - villages are poor. Poor people live there. In the UK, rich(er) people live in them. Streetviews to compare.

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I_will_never_reply@reddit

The UK has incredibly high population density, it's like living in a beehive. Small villages and quiet places are desirable and people pay a premium to live there, not the other way around. Interesting in Covid that our rates were worse than Europe - thought to be because of this - but not horrendously so

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Familiar9709@reddit

UK is generally less remote but also British people love living in houses and remote areas whereas Spanish people love living in city centres with a lot of buzz

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RedFox3001@reddit

Overpopulation

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joeschmoagogo@reddit

Because there's no where else to go in the UK.

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Dartzap@reddit

We do have them, except its the old colliery towns/villages in the North. You used to be able to buy a house for a quid because supply so massively outstripped demand .

Not sure if they are still that cheap, but I'm guessing it's still very affordable.

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ajsexton@reddit

Some of the small terrace ones are still very cheap but most of the really really cheap need a decent amount spending on it to be ok. Often damp needing dealing with, decorating etc. and then as terraces you are still at risk of the next house being in a bad state .

Recently bought a large detached house in a mining village at auction it was relatively cheap, but we've had to put 50+k into it for new floors/joists plastering etc for the damp decorating.

If it was down south I reckon it would be at least 3-4 times what we paid up here, close to London probably more

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BillWilberforce@reddit

Liverpool used to have homes for a quid. As a load of them got bought up for the new Liverpool FC Anfield stadium. With most of the homes being derelict for years, burnt out and so forth. What was really depressing about them. Was that about 1 in every 40 was clearly occupied, by people who took a lot of pride in their home. When the stadium was cancelled. They were then eventually released back on to the market., for £1 To people with substantial DIY skills who could turn them around and agreed to live there as their main or only home (once habitable) for a minimum of say 5 years.

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nosoyrubio@reddit

I was gonna say, Horden/Blackhall Colliery are probably the closest we have. Although, even then Horden has a railway station

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DrFriedGold@reddit

It's hard enough to find a shop that's open in France as it is, let alone in the remote villages.

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ealwhale@reddit

Lots of villages did die out. They were self-sustaining, having everything a village needs: a GP, a grocer, independent shops and trades, and the rail.

Now they are lucky to get a bus to stop by more than once a day

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DEADB33F@reddit

UK's villages & market towns are booming because by & large they're in relatively close proximity to where the jobs are in the cities; and the fact that our large cities are increasingly becoming shitholes makes village & small-town life more desirable.

I'm not gonna blame crime or immigration for cities becoming shitholes, but they're often cited as push factors that make people with decent incomes want to move away to outlying towns & villages.

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Prestigious_Risk7610@reddit

There is a whole spectrum of this. People saying the UK has this to9e correct that there are areas declining and struggling, but to say it's the same as places like Spain are just lacking perspective.

One big factor that supports the rural economy massively is that structure of our farming industry. We have a lot of small farms and very few big farms. You might think the total land area doesn't change so neither does the employment, but that misses that small farms are a lot more labour intensive. Even more important is small farms support a whole economic ecosystem - e.g. a vet practice, mechanics, accountants. Solicitors etc. Also the owner lives there and spends locally. In countries with consolidated large farming the farms have so much scale that it's economical to integrate all the support services and have in house vet etc...and they are so large that the owner is just the asset holder and likely lives and spends the profit in some urban location.

It's not only farming that matters, but it is a core part of the ecosystem that creates lots of local businesses that give off meaningful money that is then spent locally. France and Germany are somewhat similar to us. But looks at SpIn or Finland or Australia then you see most of the rural land is getting more and more consolidated leaving fewer jobs (due to economies of scale) but more importantly seeing most of the money made rurally flow out of the locality rather than recirculate

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kaetror@reddit

There's loads of villages in the UK that are dying.

Where I live they've just shuttered 5 village schools because literally nobody was enrolling in them. No jobs, houses cost a fortune to buy/heat (mostly oil heating), commuting is a pain. All of that drives families away and into the towns (or at least the villages closer to town).

There's going to come a point a lot of these houses/villages just get abandoned completely when the current residents move/die. You can find plenty of examples of this on the B roads around here; old owner died and because it's so isolated nobody wanted it and it's just left to rot.

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thereforewhat@reddit

There are some towns and villages with plenty of derelict properties in the UK.

It's possible there aren't as many as in other countries due to the fact the UK is a relatively small island.

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FlummoxedFlumage@reddit

I think it’s also the fact that you can sell a life in a sunny Italian hilltop town far more easily than you can a former pit village in the north of England.

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Velo_Rapide@reddit

Topography is significant.

Unlike many places UK isn't generally mountainous.

In mountainous areas you can see villages that look like they are a 'stones throw' away but are actually an hour away up an awful twisting road. It's just a huge pain in the arse to live there.

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Other-Trash9758@reddit

Many of them were already destroyed by Thatcher.

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JMM85JMM@reddit

Bear in mind a lot of European countries have declining populations. Homes will be left empty. The UK meanwhile still has an increasing population due to immigration.

When we go into population decline later this century we will see the same thing.

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ancapailldorcha@reddit

My guess would be that most places are near a large town or a city. There must be a huge number of them near either London, Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh or Cardiff.

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Otherwise_Craft9003@reddit

UK is smaller so people can be more mobile but as others have mentioned you have remote places in Scotland that have started to struggle with this.

We do have the issue of places like in Cornwall/Devon BnB landlords buying up the property and ruining the villages as there aren't year around families and people which means business and services, schools etc don't have enough people all year so close. Locals have to trave l further and further.

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Welshguy78@reddit

Also a big problem in West Wales. For years home were bought up by retired couples and for second homes. Schools died. Shops closed. Entire communities have been decimated and young people have had to move away due to not being bale to afford a house in their local community. The second home council tax imposed by the Welsh Government seems to have helped a bit, but still a dire situation.

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Otherwise_Craft9003@reddit

💯

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Bilya63@reddit

People in the UK countries concentrated in cities centuries before other countries.

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OSUBrit@reddit

They do, do this in the UK for remote islands sometimes though.

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Yorkshire_Roast@reddit

Oh, there are small towns in the UK that have been dying for the best part of 5 decades. Economic heart ripped out of them thanks to the cxxxs in Westminster.

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SYSTEM-J@reddit

Our towns may not be "dying" as drastically as they are in Italy or wherever, but the population in many smaller towns is definitely getting older and older. Young people go off to university in big cities and a lot of them simply never come back. They move to London or Manchester or Leeds or wherever else for work. The people who stay are generally the ones with worse economic prospects, which then contributes to the death of the local high street, local pubs and restaurants, etc. You drive around a lot of small towns, especially the ones not in commuter belts for big cities, and they're pretty depressing sights these days.

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tyger2020@reddit

England is a lot more dense than other European countries. I don't think people really value how big Spain is, it's almost 4 times larger than England with 10 million less people.

It's much easier for you to live somewhere rural in England and travel to x city, than it is to do the same in Spain or even Italy. Italy is also double the size of England.

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Shoddy-One-2064@reddit

Get paid to live in rural Italy? Just tell me where to sign

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Mobile-Stomach719@reddit

The UK is very densely populated compared to Spain so not enough room or requirement for everybody just to relocate. UK 244 square km vs 69.3m people, Spain 506 square km vs 48m people.

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KeyJunket1175@reddit

There is less mobility in the UK due to horribly slow and uncertan house sales and dominant anti-rent sentiment. On my personal experience people are also less keen on switching roles, let alone job hopping, people prefer to stay put.

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JohnCasey3306@reddit

Telecoms infrastructure is terrible in a lot of rural Spain (no idea with france), meaning remote work isn't even possible.

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Perception_4992@reddit

We have much higher population density.

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Frosty_Leg4438@reddit

Jobs. Purely Jobs.

With obviously some exceptions, a majority of British villages are a 1 hour drive from a medium sized town with (historically…) job opportunities.

We forget how big (and varied terrain) a lot of Europe is, these villages you read about often have no significant opportunities or infrastructure for hours,

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Mendel247@reddit

Having lived in Spain, Germany, and England, the big infrastructure difference is that in England and Germany, towns and villages are quite close, and driving along a major road (not a motorway) will take you through town after town, or village after village. There are also lots of trains and buses. They may be late or even cancelled, but the infrastructure exists.

In Spain, in places, public transport is pretty scarce. My town had a single bus each day to one local city (the one with an airport), and every two hours to the other local city. The daily bus, being the only bus each day, stopped absolutely everywhere and took 3 hours to drive what took an hour by car. The other bus was just randomly cancelled and a few times I had to go pick people up because the 7pm bus, the last one of the day, was just randomly cancelled. The nearest train station was over an hour away, and trains only ran to other cities and were expensive.

In addition, though I've heard Germany has been very slow to adopt fibreglass broadband, and I was surprised when returning to the UK in September to find out that my mother's street was only just getting fibre when I'd had it since 2019 in Spain, and much higher speeds to boot, overall, infrastructure is more reliable here. In rural Spain it was completely normal for the power, water, or Internet to randomly go off. Sometimes it'd be 30 seconds, sometimes 5 or more hours. When the nationwide blackout happened it took me 4 hours to even realise it was anything outside of the ordinary, because it was such a normal occurrence.

In terms of jobs, in the UK there are jobs where you expect to see young people, not exclusively, but predominantly. In rural Spain you'll only see a young person working in a café or restaurant if their family owns it, and forget about rural supermarkets: those jobs are held by the same people for decades. In the decade I was there I didn't see a single new face in the supermarket staff, nor did anyone leave, and I knew from talking to them that most of them had been there for at least a decade already, many since the shop had opened.

So young people leave. The leave for uni and for work. Now they're also leaving for the coast because of the weather.

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