Suburban Growth Is From Country, Not Abandoned Cities

Wendell Cox argues that the growth of the suburbs is not attributable to flight from cities, but to residents of small towns and the countryside moving to denser living.

1 minute read

May 21, 2009, 7:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur

"Much has been written about how suburbs have taken people away from the city and that now suburbanites need to return back to where they came. But in reality most suburbs of large cities have grown not from the migration of local city-dwellers but from migration from small towns and the countryside.

It is true that suburban areas have been growing strongly, while core cities have tended to grow much more slowly or even to decline. The predominance of suburban growth is not just an American phenomenon, but is fairly universal in the high income world).

This is true in both auto-oriented and transit oriented environments. Suburbs have accounted for more than 90 percent of growth in Japan's metropolitan areas with more than 1,000,000 residents, both those with high transit market shares and those with high auto market shares, The same is true in Canada, Australia and New Zealand."

FULL STORY: Suburbs and Cities: The Unexpected Truth

Saturday, May 16, 2009 in New Geography

Urban Development United States Sprawl Suburbs

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