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Originally Posted by Inziladun
I'm not very optimistic about the restored North Kingdom...
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Perhaps not, but I think there are two factors that improve their chances.
First, there would now be a sense that they were one again and so be more able to share ideas, teaching, talents, etc. That had been largely lacking since the fall of Isuldur. They were no longer "The
Two Kingdoms".
Related to that, while I agree few would want to "be" uprooted just to repopulate the north, it is entirely possible, that as the population grows in the south, more people will be attracted by the wide open lands available in the north - just as the American West was settled (tho without the dangers posed by American Indians). Which leads to the next factor ...
Second, With the fall of Sauron, the evil things that made the wild dangerous would be reduced and the population *COULD* again begin growing in the north (as well as in the south).
As Gandalf told Butterbur,
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There will be comings and goings, and the evil things will be driven out of the wastelands. Indeed the waste in time will be waste no longer, and there will be people and fields where once there was wilderness.
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Granted, that's an anticipation rather than a formal prophecy - but it does give a picture of the possibilities.