Rural migration, Europe and North America 1945 to present

From the time of the Industrial Revolution, migration in the settlement structure has had a distinct general characteristic: people largely move from rural to urban areas. According to the 2009 revision of World Urbanization Prospects, the proportion of urban population exceeded 50 percent for the first time in human history (UN 2010). This urban crossover had already occurred by 1950 in the more developed countries of Europe and North America. In 2010, the proportion of urban population in Europe was 73 percent, while in North America it was 82 percent. However, this seemingly stable urban population growth, and the rural outmigration which fueled it, was interrupted in the 1970s. Called “nonmetropolitan turnaround” in the United States and “counter-urbanization” in Europe, rural places have gained population via migration, making population redistribution trends much more complex.