This analytical and empirical study explores how human well-being is affected by spatial inequalities in the form of risk characteristics observed in the 446 spatially demarcated communities of Finland, using a multi-disciplinary institutional perspective. The study identifies communities at risk based on developing a set of criteria for different kinds of risk such as market risk, dependency structure risk, democratic autonomy risk, economic inactivity risk, labour market risk, fiscal risk and infrastructure risk. An inter-temporal identify and evaluate policy choices available to local and national governance for administrative communal reorganisation, development of social capital, sustenance of economic growth, livelihoods and quality of life, labour market adjustments, retirement policies, management of public debt, and migration. Community population sizes, acturially sustainable dependency ratios, availability and affordability of goods and services assuring consumption security, labour market clearing and endurable social capital are related to each other. This study concludes that the earliest warning signals arise from reduced capacity to preserve social capital required to stimulate economic activity, and wasted public investments, not from consequential outcomes such as changes in per capita income or assets and before changes in quality of life indicators due to reduced social spending become measurable. While the nature, causes and magnitudes of spatial inequality vary from country to country, the criteria developed in this study could have a wider relevance.