Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
25
20
15
10
5
0
-5
1970-1980
1980-1990
1990-2000
2000-2010
Balmore
Washington D.C.
Boston
Philadelphia
New York
Megalopolis
U.S.
Fig. 18.4
Population change in the U.S. and five MSAs in the Megalopolis
largest metro, New York. With their economies dominated by declining
manufacturing industries both metropolitan Philadelphia and Baltimore, were
nearly stationary, and New York suffered population loss.
Boston, which had passed earlier through its industrial decline and had begun to
restructure itself, registered minor demographic growth. In the subsequent period
(1987-2002), the rise of the knowledge-intensive production and knowledge-
intensive financial, business, professional, and technical services greatly enhanced
economic and demographic opportunities in the Megalopolis. New York,
Washington, D.C. and Boston have been particular demographic beneficiaries
from these favorable economic developments.
Figure
18.4
shows that population growth has been relatively slow in the
Megalopolis region, with all metro areas except Washington DC growing more
slowly than the US as a whole in all decades from the 1970s to 2010. Figure
18.5
shows the progression over four decades (1970-2010) of population, employment
(manufacturing, and all non-farming sectors) and total earnings (manufacturing and
all non-farming sectors) in the Megalopolis in terms of national shares. The
Megalopolis share of national population declined steadily in the first two decades,
but this decline is at a gentler pace in the last two decades (Fig.
18.5
). There is a
similar pattern to the national shares of total employment, except that total employ-
ment shares in Megalopolis are always higher than that of population—showing an
upward shift in per capita levels of employment in the Megalopolis as compared to
the nation.
However, the manufacturing employment of this region relative to the nation
drops sharply since 1990, indicating sharper regional decline of the manufacturing
sector. However, the earnings shares of the Megalopolis in the manufacturing sector
stay higher than the employment shares in the entire period (and more so in the last
