The kilometers weigh heavily on the shoulders of young people living in the French countryside. Distance and scarcity of public transport have consequences in their daily lives, but also on their health and their education.
According to an Ifop poll for the association Future paths and think tanks Terram Institute, 30% of rural young people have had to give up going to their place of study due to travel difficulties. 26% have given up on a medical appointment.
However, almost half of them (48%) wish to continue living in the countryside, with a desire to stay all the stronger the higher their standard of living. But moving appears to be a major obstacle for these residents of municipalities “not very dense” et “very sparse”, or 88% of municipalities.
The transport solutions are less numerous in the countryside. 53% of young rural people say they are poorly served by the bus network and 62% by the train. Three times more than their urban cousins.
Car dependence is significant from the age of obtaining a driving license. 18% of young rural people aged 29 to 69 rely on the car daily, compared to 38% of young urban adults. “This dependence causes fragility, particularly for the 7 out of 10 young rural people over 25 years old (67%) who say they are at risk of losing their job if their current mode of transport is compromised”, underline the authors of the study.
At the end of the day, rural people lost much more time in transport: 2 hours 37 minutes per day, on average. This is 42 minutes more than for young urban adults.
An important issue in the choice of higher education
The issue of mobility takes a new turn when it comes to choosing your direction for higher studies while 70% of post-baccalaureate training is located in large metropolises. Young adults must necessarily adapt and cope with the higher cost of living in big cities.
These constraints are sources of discomfort. Survey reveals rural youth are more affected by mental health problems : 76% say they have experienced intense periods of “stress, nervousness or anxiety”, 49% speak of episodes of depression, and 35% say they have already had suicidal thoughts.
These issues, taken up in a previous provox campaign (see pages 13 & 18), were presented to the European institutions.
