This article suggests that there are three principal sources of metropolitan population decline: the declining birth rate, the reversal of rural-to-urban migration, and inter-metropolitan migration. (Author/AM)

Examines the historical patterns and components of the population flows that have contributed to recent metropolitan development in the sunbelt. Examines potential problems and fundamental contradictions inherent in both the continuation and cessation of the population influx. Suggests that these demographic and economic trends may seriously…

Migration data suggest an evolutionary process in which central cities attract high status migrants when cities are relatively small, attract migrants less as they grow, and then again become attractive. Large northern cities may currently be in the middle stage. (Author/MJL)

An unexpected demographic development in the United States in the 1970's was the shift of nonmetropolitan areas to net inmigration, reversing a 70-year trend. Using the 1970 definition of metropolitan, the percent of the population living in metropolitan areas fell from 69% in 1970 to 67.8% in 1978. No easily identifiable set of reasons explained…

The urbanization of the black population is a relatively recent phenomenon. Historically, migration has been the major source of the growth of the black population in the large cities of the North, yet the migration from nonmetropolitan to metropolitan areas has been going long enough to have established a substantial black population in the…