Policy recommendations from the project "Coastal societies and demography" Many rural areas are exposed to situations where schools are being closed due to the declining number of children, local shops are disappearing in the smaller towns, while local governments are struggling with pressure on the local public budgets. Parallel to this new residential areas are shooting up in the urban areas. This is just a small glimpse of the visible consequences of the on-going global urbanisation trend. In the Nordic coastal societies the urbanisation is also visible and the consequences are often even more pronounced.