The end of urban sprawl? Internal migration across the rural‐urban continuum in Switzerland, 1966−2018

Abstract

In high‐income countries, migration redistributed populations from congested city centres into the sparsely populated outskirts, raising challenges to environmental and population health and the conservation of biodiversity. We evaluate whether this periurbanisation process came to a halt in Switzerland by expecting a decline in internal migration and a renewed residential attractiveness of urban agglomeration centres (i.e., re‐urbanisation)—two recent trend changes observed in Europe. Relying on data from censuses, registers and surveys, we describe trends in the intensity, geography and sociodemographic differentials of migration across consistently defined urban agglomeration density zones between 1966 and 2018. Although the overall intensity of migration declined, the rate increased among the working age population in part because of the societal diffusion of tertiary education. The dominant urban‐bound migration flows are increasingly confined within agglomerations over time. After the diffusion of periurbanisation down the city hierarchy between 1966 and 1990, we observe the emergence of re‐urbanisation in some agglomerations and sociodemographic groups around 2000. However, this phenomenon has been temporarily inflated by period‐specific transformations in Swiss society. More recently, the process of periurbanisation intensified again and expanded more and more beyond official agglomeration borders.

Non-survival to pension age in Denmark and Sweden: a sub-national investigation

“…The age pyramids observed in large metropolitan areas are surprisingly similar to the age profile of the intensity of internal migration (Kashnitsky et al, 2017). This finding of lowest mortality in outer-urban territories and higher mortality in the city centres is also documented in literature and is known as urban agglomeration belt area effect (Lerch, 2023;Lerch et al, 2017).…”

Multiscale pattern analysis of building replacements in Zurich from 2000 to 2019

“…The greater city of Zurich is chosen as a case study due to the prevalence of BR as a strategy for its urban development. The exhaustion of accessible building land reserves within the city boundary in the 1990s [10], followed by re-urbanization [11] and rapid population growth [12] at the turn of the 21st century, brought about a notable emergence of BR in Zurich. In 2015, seven percent of the city's population lived in replacement buildings [13].…”

A Decision Support System for Internal Migration Policy-Making

“…The level of urban development, demographic attributes, and social attributes, have all had influence on specific time intervals, and under specific conditions. Lerch (2023) identifies that in highly developed countries the trend of migrations from congested city centers into the sparsely populated outskirts has come to a halt and that redistribution is again happening towards the more developed city centers. Lerch (2023) also reports that the rate of migration increased among the working-age population because education aspiration increases the potential benefits of migrants and helps them overcome their financial barriers as reported in De Haas (2010).…”