Shrinking cities
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This article concerns the decline of city populations in some locations. Contrary to the familiar industrial image of "boomtowns", the size of some cities has declined, despite a growth in world population. Cities shrink when economic investment moves elsewhere in the world or when governmental policy creates a cycle of disinvestment. (See "redlining") Although seldom referred to, the decline of cities is a general pattern of our civilization. Surprisingly, the number of shrinking cities has increased faster in the last 50 years than the number of expanding ones.[citation needed]
[edit] Global context
The current population of the world is 6.1 billion people. Currently about 3 billion live in cities. The expected growth by 2030 in cities is expected to be 4.1 billion.
In the last 50 years, about 370 cities with more than 100,000 residents have undergone population losses of more than 10%. More than 25 percent of the depopulating cities are in the United States, and most of those are on the East Coast.
[edit] See also
