The rural–urban sex ratio gap evolution among young adults as indicator for territorial cohesion policies

Growing territorial disparities across Europe are receiving increasing political attention. The gap in professional and living prospects between cities and rural areas is particularly wide for young adult women, who play a significant role in socioeconomic and demographic dynamics at both regional and local levels. While the monitoring indicators used in the EU’s territorial cohesion policies do incorporate gender imbalances, they do not specifically address the situation of young adults. This article proposes the inclusion of an indicator to measure the temporal evolution of the rural – urban sex ratio gap among young adults (RUSERGYA) at different scales. Our case study comprises 7,874 municipalities across continental Spain, classified into eight types based on their population size and accessibility. Between 2000 and 2022, the RUSERGYA of the various types of municipality decreased at the national level, except that of remote rural areas, where several regions and counties experienced an increasing gap, calling for urgent action. By subperiods, since 2010 this gap has tended to widen, only relieved after the Covid-19 pandemic in rural intermediate municipalities. The proposed indicator detects significant territorial imbalances and would be useful for monitoring the EU’s territorial cohesion and rural development policies from a gender-equity perspective.