Population decline and changes in food store proximity

This study examines changes in the access to food stores between 2000-2013 using Swedish register data. The analysis shows that there have been increases of, on average, 400 meters in the neighborhood-level average distance to the nearest store. These changes are not systematically biased towards socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. I also analyze the relationship between population density and the distance from the neighborhood centroid to the nearest food store using a spatiotemporal analysis of panel data covering the same period. The analysis finds that a decline in population density is related to an increase in the distance to the nearest food store. This indicates that as long as there is a decline in population density, food store access by proximity will continue to decrease.