Skip to main content
Log in

Changing families and changing mobility: Their impact on the central city

  • Published:
Demography

Abstract

Urban scholars and planners look to evidence of recent gains in the number of nontraditional households as a potential source of increase to the population sizes and tax bases of declining central cities. While it is now well established that substantial gains in the numbers of small, nontraditional households have occurred since the 1950s, it has not been demonstrated that: (a) these households are more likely to relocate in the city than traditional family households (husband-wife with children under 18); or (b) their cityward relocation patterns will significantly alter trends toward smaller city household populations. This paper addresses these questions by examining changes in city-suburb migration stream rates by household type over periods 1955–60, 1965–70 and 1970–75 for large metropolitan areas, and assesses their implications for potential changes in the aggregate sizes of city household populations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abu-Lughod, Janet and Mary Mix Foley. 1960. Consumer Strategies. In Nelson N. Foote, Janet Abu-Lughod, Mary Mix Foley and Louis Winnick (eds.), Housing Choices and Housing Constraints, Part Two. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, Edger W., F. Stuart Chapin, Jr., George C. Hemmens, Edward J. Kaiser, Michael A. Stegman, and Shirley F. Weiss. 1969. Moving Behavior and Residential Choice-A National Survey. National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report No. 81. Washington, D.C.: Highway Research Board, National Academy of Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Embry, Robert C., Jr. 1978. Back-to-the-City Movement May Signal the End of Urban Decline. City, Town and Country (January):37–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fleetwood, Blake. 1979. The New Elite and the Urban Renaissance. The New York Times Magazine (January 14).

  • Chevan, Albert. 1971. Family Growth, Household Density and Moving. Demography 8:351–358.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frey, William H. 1978a. Population Movement and City-Suburb Redistribution: An Analytic Framework. Demography 15:571–578.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1978b. Mover’s Life-Cycle Stage and Choice of Destination Neighborhood: Implications for Urban Social Structure. Pp. 99–148 in W. A. V. Clark and Eric G. Moore (eds.), Population Mobility and Residential Change. Studies in Geography No. 25. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1980a. Black In-Migration, White Flight and the Changing Economic Base of the Central City. American Journal of Sociology 85:1396–1417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frey, William H. 1980b. White Return to the City, Black Movement to the Suburbs, and Projected Changes in Future City Populations. Paper presented at the 1980 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York City.

  • Glick, Paul C. 1975. Some Recent Changes in American Families. U. S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Special Studies: Series P-23. Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1977. Marrying, Divorcing and Living Together in the United States Today. Population Bulletin 32:5. Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, John L., Jr. 1974. Local Residential Mobility and Family Housing Adjustments. Pp. 79–105 in J. N. Morgan (ed.), Five Thousand American Families-Patterns of Economic Progress, Vol. II. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan.

    Google Scholar 

  • — 1979. Reasons for Moves Out Of and Into Large Cities. Journal of the American Planning Associations 45:407–416.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grier, George and Eunice S. Grier. 1977. Movers to the City. Washington, D.C.: Washington Center for Metropolitan Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kobrin, Frances E. 1973. Household Headship and Its Changes in the U.S., 1940–1960, 1970. Journal of the American Statistical Association 68:793–800.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1976a. The Fall of Household Size and the Rise of the Primary Individual in the United States. Demography 13:127–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1976b. The Primary Individual and the Family: Changes in Living Arrangements in the United States Since 1940. Journal of Marriage and the Family 38:233–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1981. Family Extension and the Elderly: Economic, Demographic, and Family Cycle Factors. The Journal of Gerontology 6:370–377.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laska, Shirley Bradway and Daphne Spain (eds.). 1980. Back to the City: Issues in Neighborhood Renovation. New York: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Long, Larry H. 1972. The Influence of Number and Ages of Children on Residential Mobility. Demography 9:371–382.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • — 1980. Back to the Countryside and Back to the City in the Same Decade. Pp. 61–76 in Shirley Bradway Laska and Daphne Spain (eds.), Back to the City: Issues in Neighborhood Renovation. New York: Pergamon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Long, Larry H. and Paul C. Glick. 1976. Family Patterns in Suburban Areas: Recent Trends. Pp, 39–67 in Barry Schwartz (ed.), The Changing Face of the Suburbs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michael, Robert T., Victor Fuchs, and Sharon R. Scott. 1980. Changes in the Propensity to Live Alone: 1950–1976. Demography 17(1):39–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rossi, Peter H. 1955. Why Families Move. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Speare, Alden Jr. 1970. Horne Ownership, Life Cycle Stage, and Residential Mobility. Demography 7:449–458.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Speare, Alden Jr., Sidney Goldstein, and William H. Frey. 1975. Residential Mobility, Migration and Metropolitan Change. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sweet, James A. 1977. Demography and the Family. Annual Review of Sociology 3:363–405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Frey, W.H., Kobrin, F.E. Changing families and changing mobility: Their impact on the central city. Demography 19, 261–277 (1982). https://doi.org/10.2307/2060970

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2060970

Keywords

Navigation