City-Suburban Population Redistribution

Abstract

Current Population Survey (CPS) data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census quite clearly document continued population redistribution away from SMSAs to nonmetropolitan areas in the United States in the second half of the 1970s. Also, despite popular and some professional allegations of a return of population to cities from suburban rings-which would herald another dramatic migration turnaround during the 1970s CPS data reveal even heavier migration away from central cities to both suburbs and nonmetropolitan areas than in earlier years. Suburban rings are continuing to gain and central cities are continuing to lose population as a result of migration patterns. Decline in population growth rates in the suburban sector is clearly associated with lowered levels of natural increase not to a decline in net immigration. Overall, from a strictly demographic perspective, the data reveal no evidence of a "return-to-the-city" trend.