Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Between 1970 and 2005, the barycenter of the population of the conterminous
United States moved rapidly to the Southwest (see Figure 5.8). It moved 225 km,
crossed the Mississippi and is now situated in the state of Missouri. Even more so
than in the previous period, population growth has occurred mainly in peripheral
metropolitan areas, in the Megalopolis, the Southeast Atlantic, Atlanta, the
Carolinas, Florida, Texas, California and states bordering the desert, and the Pacific
Northwest. In comparison, growth in central cities appears modest, and Pittsburgh,
Buffalo, and Cleveland are already declining. The depopulation of the Appalachians
and the rural South is slowing, except in areas with particularly unfavorable
economic specializations, such as the lower Mississippi Valley and West Virginia.
The decline of the High Plains continues at a steady pace. The areas near Lake Erie,
the core of the Rustbelt, have begun to decline. The decentralization of populations
is ongoing, and the territory is becoming increasingly polycentric. In 2005, the
standard ellipse of deviation spanned 4.7 million km², and included 62% of the total
population. Its move to the South and the West has made Boston a peripheral city,
closer to Ireland than to California, while the route of the ellipse gets closer to Salt
Lake City in the West.
