This paper reports on a demographic study that focuses on the patterns of migration to and from specific metropolitan areas which contribute to nonmetropolitan growth and decline. For background, the paper examines some general properties of the United States migration system. Then the concept of metropolitan areas as redistributors of population…

The 1970's ushered in widespread population deconcentration, seen in the pervasive shift of the United States population down the size-of-place scale. To document population changes in various sized places in the country from 1950 to 1980 and to show the pervasiveness of urban-rural deconcentration in nonmetropolitan areas, researchers examined…

Gallup Polls conducted between 1966 and 1972 indicated that the percentage of persons stating they would prefer living in a city has steadily declined, reaching the all-time low of 13 percent in 1972. Interviews conducted with a sample of 1,806 Americans showed that while one-third of the respondents currently live in towns, villages, or rural…

Several demographic aspects of population concentration and deconcentration within the nonmetropolitan sector during 1960-1984 are examined using census data. Relative rates of urban and rural growth during 1960-70, 1970-80, and 1980-84 are compared. Shifts in the proportion of nonmetropolitan counties experiencing rural growth during 1980-84 are…

This study of population change in Ohio during the 1960s and 1970s analyzed change by size of place and found sharp contrasts between the two decades. Places in metropolitan core counties which had the highest growth rate in the 1960s showed that lowest growth rate in the 1970s. Small towns in fringe metropolitan areas and nonmetropolitan counties…

To further an explanation of the post-1970 United States demographic phenomenon of increased population for non-metropolitan areas, the relationship of 3 ecological phenomena to non-metropolitan net migration rates between the 1960's and the 1970's is examined for a random stratified sample of 380 United States non-metropolitan counties (primarily…

The paper briefly focuses on two questions: Can the recent growth trend be expected to continue into the future? and What does this imply as far as public policy and programs are concerned? Statistics on growth in the seventies suggest three possibilities: a change in the functions of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas; the decline of the city…

This analysis addresses the need for including age-structure effects in migration analysis as important for determining effects of a demographic process on an area's socioeconomic characteristics. It examines: (1) patterns of age-specific net migration across age groups for Texas' 254 counties in 1960-1970 and 1970-1980 using cluster analysis and,…

Aging of the national population coupled with shifts in long-term redistribution trends have sparked interest in the spatial distribution of the elderly population. The insufficiency of economic models for explanations of elderly migration has been recognized and new approaches are being developed. Findings regarding the effects of retirement,…

The role of migration and of federal policy in population redistribution should be a central focus in population geography education. Although migration to the Sunbelt and the West has been a pattern since the 1950s, a significant trend has been noted only since the 1970s, when the birth rate dropped so much that natural increase could not…

Demographic changes between 1970 and 1980 will affect New York rural schools in the 1980's. In the 1970's overall New York state population declined nearly 4% (about 700,000 persons), but rural areas gained about 100,000. Rural New York school districts now serve a population of about 2.5 million, a 5% increase since 1970. During the 1980's,…