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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 July 2009
During the past 30 years, the growth of the larger urban centres, which has been steady since the beginning of urbanization, ceased to be regular and general. Third World cities continued their evolution during the 1960s and 1970s. It was different for Western cities, especially in North America and Northern Europe, where a period of decline or stability occurred for about 15 years, between 1965 and 1980. In order to qualify this emerging trend, Brian Berry coined the word counterurbanization in 19761 During the 1980s, many demographers expected a generalization of this phenomenon, i.e. an accelerated decline of major urban centres all over the developed world but it did not occur. It is this problem that is addressed here.