4 - Metropolitan Growth and Migration: The Patterns Since 1950

Abstract

The chapter discusses the patterns of metropolitan growth and migration since 1950. The concept of urban economic growth can be interpreted in a somewhat broader sense to embrace changes in average and in per capita measures of various economic phenomena, in which case, the meanings of the concepts of urban economic growth and urban economic development are much closer. When the narrower connotation of urban growth is adopted, situations can be conceptualized in which growth occurs without development or in which development occurs in the absence of growth and even in the presence of decline. However, when average and per capita measures of growth are adopted, economic growth and economic development are more likely to move together. This chapter describes the patterns of urban economic growth in the United States over the period from 1950 to 1975 for a fairly large sample of metropolitan areas. The most comprehensive and best data to utilize in examining patterns of urban employment growth are from the Census of Population: 1950, 1960, and 1970. These data are particularly useful because they can be corrected for changes in the spatial areas covered by the various standard metropolitan statistical areas.