Agurbs Growing While Major Cities Shrink

Between 2000 and 2004 twenty-one of the country’s 25 largest micropolitan statistical areas, a new category that the U. S. Census announced after we published BoomtownUSA, had net immigration while eighteen of the 25 largest MSAs had net out migration. Many of these micropolitans like Traverse City, MI; Tupelo, MS; Mooresville, NC and others were agurbs® that I highlighted in the book. Click here to read the sixteen page report.

This latest report documents what I predicted would happen and am observing every week in my travels around the USA. More and more people are getting fed up with the hassles of living in big, impersonal cities and are searching for a more intimate experience like what they can find in smaller, more vibrant cities. The agurbs® that are developing a higher quality of life and a special “sense of place”, are the ones that are making themselves most attractive for these out-migraters from the big cities.

As expected, the areas of biggest growth in the USA are in the South and to a lesser extent in the West (mountain states growing, pacific states shrinking). Of particular interest to me was the fact that while the Northeast and Midwest continued to lose population at an alarming rate, eight of the largest ten micropolitan areas in those regions gained population in the past four years while all 10 MSAs in those regions lost population.

The third wave of migration in the USA is occurring today. What are you doing in your community to attract these out-migraters from the large cities?
This subject was the focus of our weekly e-zine, The Agurban. If you’d like to get on the e-mail list to receive it every Tuesday please email me at agurban@boomtowninstute.com.