Abstract
Census Bureau population estimates for metro politan and nonmetropolitan areas in the 1970s reveal, for the first time in over 50 years, higher population growth and net in-migration for nonmetropolitan areas than metropolitan areas. This dramatic and largely unanticipated reversal in the traditional population growth pattern is not limited to non metropolitan areas adjacent to metropolitan centers, but is also happening in many of the remote nonmetropolitan counties. In this article, the impact of residential preferences on population dispersal migration behavior is analyzed by means of data from a longitudinal migration survey. The widespread preference for small cities, villages, and the countryside identified in public opinion polls is not the sig nificant factor in nonmetropolitan migration. Rather, popula tion dispersal migrants are characterized by the willingness and apparently better ability to give up the urban-based conveniences to shopping, work, and public transportation to live in nonmetropolitan environments. Barring the crip pling effect of an energy crisis, the medium-range prospect for continued nonmetropolitan population growth appears plausible.
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