Population declining along metropolitan edges

Population growth at the far edge of American metropolitan areas has plummeted in the past few years. William Frey, a demographer at Brookings Institution, analyzed US Census figures and found that in the year ending in July 2011, the population in the nation’s outer suburbs grew 0.4 percent, down from 1 percent in the previous year. In 2006, before the housing crash and the economic crisis, population growth in the far suburbs hit a peak of 2 percent.

“This could be the end of the exurb as a place where people aspire to go when they’re starting their families,” USA Today quoted Frey as saying. “It shows the locational advantage of being in the biggest cities,” added Robert Lang, professor of urban affairs and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.