The financial sustainability of public services as an instrument to combat depopulation in small and medium-sized municipalities Alcaide Muñoz, Laura Navarro Galera, Andrés Rodríguez Bolívar, Manuel Pedro Depopulation financial sustainability Population size Local governments Socio-economic variables Demographic variables Previous research identified influencing factors in sustainability of public services but exclusively in large local governments, despite the fact that depopulation is currently a serious problem that affects rural areas of many European countries. However, despite that >80 % of European municipalities have fewer than 5000 inhabitants, more work is needed on the factors influencing the financial sustainability of small local governments, that are being greatly affected by the loss of population. This study identifies influencing factors in the financial sustainability of local governments of different population sizes. We analyse the behaviour of 3625 Spanish municipalities during 2009–2017. Our findings are useful for public managers interested in promoting the financial sustainability of small municipalities as an instrument to fight against depopulation and prevent effects of economics crisis in small and medium municipalities. 2024-10-17T08:43:53Z 2024-10-17T08:43:53Z 2024-11 journal article L. Alcaide Muñoz et al. The financial sustainability of public services as an instrument to combat depopulation in small and medium-sized municipalities. Cities 154 (2024) 105337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2024.105337 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/96053 10.1016/j.cities.2024.105337 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ embargoed access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Elservier