Recent population redistribution trends in nonmetropolitan America.

This paper examines recent nonmetropolitan population redistribution trends and places them in historical context. Between 1980 and 1987 nonmetropolitan areas grew by 4% despite a slight migration loss. Metropolitan growth rates again exceeded those in nonmetropolitan areas during the period in sharp contrast to the trend of the 1970s. The nonmetropolitan population and migration gains between 1980 and 1987 are neither as large nor as widespread as those during the 1970s but they are quite substantial by any historical standard. There is a little evidence in the data for the 1980s suggesting a return to an era of substantial outmigration. (authors)