IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v41y2009i3p514-528.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urban Population Loss in Historical Perspective: United States, 1820–2000

Author

Listed:
  • Robert A Beauregard

    (Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, Avery Hall MC 0343, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA)

Abstract

Employing an historical perspective, the author mounts a quantitative and theoretical assessment of population loss in the large cities of the United States. Three periods are considered: one prior to 1920 when large city population loss was aberrant; a second which captures the severe decline of the decades after World War II, and a third that encompasses the more recent shrinkage of cities. Population loss is measured in terms of prevalence, severity, and persistence and is also analyzed geographically. The author further identifies factors affecting population loss which are common and unique to each period. Although population loss has diminished, a number of cities are locked into trajectories of chronic loss, suggesting that a new phase of urbanization has yet to materialize.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert A Beauregard, 2009. "Urban Population Loss in Historical Perspective: United States, 1820–2000," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(3), pages 514-528, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:41:y:2009:i:3:p:514-528
    DOI: 10.1068/a40139a
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a40139a
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a40139a?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul C. Cheshire, 2006. "Resurgent Cities, Urban Myths and Policy Hubris: What We Need to Know," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(8), pages 1231-1246, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiao, Huijuan & Duan, Zhiyuan & Zhou, Ya & Zhang, Ning & Shan, Yuli & Lin, Xiyan & Liu, Guosheng, 2019. "CO2 emission patterns in shrinking and growing cities: A case study of Northeast China and the Yangtze River Delta," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Matthias Bernt & Annegret Haase & Katrin Großmann & Matthew Cocks & Chris Couch & Caterina Cortese & Robert Krzysztofik, 2014. "How does(n't) Urban Shrinkage get onto the Agenda? Experiences from Leipzig, Liverpool, Genoa and Bytom," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1749-1766, September.
    3. Josje J. Hoekveld & Marco Bontje, 2016. "Intra-Regional Differentiation of Population Development in Southern-Limburg, the Netherlands," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 107(3), pages 282-297, July.
    4. Matthias Bernt, 2016. "The Limits of Shrinkage: Conceptual Pitfalls and Alternatives in the Discussion of Urban Population Loss," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 441-450, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mace, Alan & Holman, Nancy & Paccoud, Antoine & Sundaresan, Jayaraj, 2015. "Coordinating density; working through conviction, suspicion and pragmatism," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 56768, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Tomas Hanell, 2022. "Unmet Aspirations and Urban Malaise," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 83-103, November.
    3. Peter Mayerhofer & Oliver Fritz & Dieter Pennerstorfer, 2010. "Dritter Bericht zur internationalen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit Wiens," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 42430, April.
    4. Belotti, Alice, 2016. "Estate regeneration and community impacts: challenges and lessons for social landlords, developers and local councils," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121480, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Peter Gordon & Wendell Cox, 2012. "Cities in Western Europe and the United States: do policy differences matter?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 48(2), pages 565-594, April.
    6. Wilczyński Witold & Wilczyński Piotr, 2011. "Population of American Cities: 1950-2009," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 16(16), pages 153-172, January.
    7. H.S. Geyer, 2011. "Creativity, Wellbeing and Urban Sustainability: Areas in Which the North and the South Can Learn from Each Other," Chapters, in: H. S. Geyer (ed.), International Handbook of Urban Policy, Volume 3, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Champion, Tony & Townsend, Alan, 2012. "Great Britain's second-order city regions in recessions, 1978-2010," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58423, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Neil Lee, 2014. "The Creative Industries and Urban Economic Growth in the UK," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(2), pages 455-470, February.
    10. Steven A. Cohen & Kelsie L. DeFrancia & Hayley J. Martinez, 2016. "A positive vision of sustainability," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 6(1), pages 231-238, March.
    11. Tony Champion & Alan Townsend, 2012. "Great Britain's Second-Order City Regions in Recessions, 1978-2010," SERC Discussion Papers 0104, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    12. Thom Malone & Christian L. Redfearn, 2022. "To measure globally, aggregate locally: Urban land, submarkets, and biased estimates of the housing stock," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 50(3), pages 656-671, September.
    13. Annekatrin Niebuhr & Tanja Buch & Silke Hamann & Anja Rossen, 2012. "Jobs or Amenities – What determines the migration balances of cities?," ERSA conference papers ersa12p401, European Regional Science Association.
    14. Champion, Tony & Coombes, Mike & Gordon, Ian R., 2013. "How far do England’s second-order cities emulate London as human-capital ‘escalators’?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58447, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Yasna Cortés, 2021. "Spatial Accessibility to Local Public Services in an Unequal Place: An Analysis from Patterns of Residential Segregation in the Metropolitan Area of Santiago, Chile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-20, January.
    16. Karishma Asarpota & Vincent Nadin, 2020. "Energy Strategies, the Urban Dimension, and Spatial Planning," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-25, July.
    17. Taner Osman, 2023. "Understanding Divergence in the Performance of Central Business District Economies Among U.S. Metropolitan Regions, 1995–2019," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 37(2), pages 143-153, May.
    18. Peter Gordon & Wendell Cox, 2012. "Cities In Western Europe and The United States: Do Policy Differences Matter?," Working Paper 8956, USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.
    19. Nadja Kabisch & Dagmar Haase & Annegret Haase, 2010. "Evolving Reurbanisation? Spatio-temporal Dynamics as Exemplified by the East German City of Leipzig," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(5), pages 967-990, May.
    20. Rouwendal, Jan & Keus, Adriaan & Dekkers, Jasper, 2018. "Gentrification through the sale of rental housing? Evidence from Amsterdam," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 30-43.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:41:y:2009:i:3:p:514-528. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.