Analysis of Current Population Survey data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census contradicts the popular allegation of significant population returns to central cities from suburbs. On the contrary, data reveal a continuation of the decades-old trend of migration away from metropolitan areas. (KH)

The post-World War II American pattern of general urban growth, rapid suburbanization, and central city decline has now given way to reduced urban growth outside the Sunbelt, increased growth in nonmetropolitan areas, greater self-sufficiency for suburbs, and continuing depression in the central cities. Implications of these changes are discussed.…