# The 28 fastest shrinking cities in the world



## bayviews (Mar 3, 2006)

CCs77 said:


> They have very low birth rates, I guess that is promoted by the government but I think also the population choose not to have many children due to the economic situation. Also they have had a policy of limiting the growth of Havana, leading the population to stablish in the countryside or smaller cities. But whatsoever, it is not only Havana, the entire country grows in a very low rate, with an increase of less than 100 thousand since 2000 (From 11,142,000 in 2000 to 11,241,161 in 2010)
> 
> You are right, this list is at least misleading, you don't know when is the population of the entire Metro Area, a fraction of it or only the city proper.
> 
> And as some people pointed out, there aren't some cities that do are losing population within their metro areas. Such as Detroit, that decreased from 4,452,557 in 2000 to 4,296,250 in 2010 (-3,5%) or Cleveland, from 2,945,831 in 2000	to 2,881,937 in 2010 (and from 3,098,516 in 1970, its peak population) Saint Louis apparently is still growing within its metro area.


Consider that Cuba has a very good educational system but the buildings & conditions have been very poor. So if your Cuban your smart & not going to have many babies.


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## skyscrapercity (Aug 31, 2004)

Lightness said:


> With plummeting birthrates come shrinking cities and a dying civilisation.
> 
> The UN has compiled a list of the 28 cities that are on track to shrink the fastest in the world between 1990 and 2025. Russia and Eastern Europe tend to be the fastest out of the block, with *South Korea *and Italy following. Soon most of Europe and East Asia will suffer a similar faith.
> 
> ...


In south korea, it is true that the a low birth rate has become a hot potato in Korean society right now.

But the shrinking of cities is another story.
The shrinking population of cities have resulted by Korean government policy deliberately.
Korean goverment has been making big effort to reduce overpopulation of Seoul and trying to prevent Seoul from urban concentration for better quality of life of its citizens. 
As a seeking balanced development, south korea relcated the administrative capital from Seoul to Sejong city and built many new cities for movement of population.

In Busan case, Busan has become a powerful city in Korea and has grown into an international city despite a decline in population.

Look at Busan, the 8th fast-shrinking city in the world, becoming powerful.
Busan is ranked the fourth best city after Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo among Asia's top convention cities in a 2011 global ranking by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).
Busan's citizens slightly decreased but the streets are overflowing with the visitors from all around world.


Flickr에서 insung jeon님의 Gwangalli, Busan (광안리)


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## skyscrapercity (Aug 31, 2004)

Svartmetall said:


> Exactly. It wouldn't be the first time that there were spurious correlations attempted to be drawn between welfare and demographic collapse. Seoul in particular has been in charge of conservatives for a fair old while and Korea as a whole is very much a non-welfare state compared to Australia not to mention Singapore which is very far from a welfare state and has a complete demographic disaster in its native population with one of the lowest rates of fertility in the world.
> 
> If anything it is a failure of the government to help balance work-life and cost of living to ensure that successful workers can still afford or have the time and means to have a family.


In south korea, welfare system is not only reason of the low birthrate.
Korean govermnet has supported married couples in many ways, for example, paying childbirth grant, free education, giving tax break and giving child rearing expenses.
Of course, it is not enough.(I am not saying that korea has very good welfare system.)

This is the bigger reason of low birth rate in Korea.
Changes in the social atmosphere where marrigae and having children are not a must anymore result in a decrease in the number of population in korea.
Some people want to remain single during life and even many married coulples don't want to have their children for maintainning their lifestyle.
Yes, some people prefer to live childless life.


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## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

In France the cities that have shrunk the most between the 1999 and 2009 censuses are the following. I have selected only the cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants. The figures here refer to the central communes (what would be called in other countries the 'inner city'). The whole metropolitan area may actually have grown while the central city declined (this is the case for our #1 for example), due to a flight to the suburbs.

*# 5: Thiers*
(industrial city in the mountains of Auvergne)
population shrunk by 13.6% between March 1999 and Jan. 2009









*# 4: Saint-Dizier*
(industrial city in the uplands of Champagne)
population shrunk by 15.3% between March 1999 and Jan. 2009










*# 3: Biarritz*
(the famous surfing spot and seaside resort in the French Basque country)
population shrunk by 15.5% between March 1999 and Jan. 2009









*# 2: Vitry-le-François*
(industrial city in the middle of Champagne whose only fame is to have briefly hosted Brisavoine's grandparents in the 1930s )
population shrunk by 18.2% between March 1999 and Jan. 2009









*# 1: Pointe-à-Pitre*
(the derelict inner city of the sprawling Pointe-à-Pitre urban area in Guadeloupe)
population shrunk by 18.7% between March 1999 and Jan. 2009


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## geococcyx (Dec 27, 2011)

hopefully mexican cities start shrinking soon, specially the capital


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## elisaevedent (Nov 1, 2012)

Nice Post... Than you for your sharing..


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## calaguyo (Nov 28, 2008)

Everybody move to Moscow I guess!


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## void0 (Oct 8, 2008)

calaguyo said:


> Everybody move to Moscow I guess!


Moscow these days


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## Uaarkson (Feb 11, 2009)

-Corey- said:


> Where is Detroit??


This was my very first thought. Detroit lost *25%* of its population over the last decade.


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## bayviews (Mar 3, 2006)

Sarcasticity said:


> I highly doubt you'd call Seoul shrinking in any sense


South Korea's birthrate has really plunged following on Japanese model, thus Seoul's become a shrinking city. Albeit its still huge!


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## Otto Racecar (Jan 13, 2011)

Uaarkson said:


> This was my very first thought. Detroit lost *25%* of its population over the last decade.


Again this list is referring to metro population, which is really the important number when talking about cities population otherwise miami would just be a city of 400,000 people not a metro of 5.5 million. If we look at the time frame the list goes by (1990-2010), Metro Detroit went from 4,382,299 to 4,296,950. A decline but not nearly as bad as people seem to connontate with detroit.

I know someone was mentioning Cincinnati in an early post and cincy's metro grew from 1,844,917 in 1990 to 2,130,151 in 2010.


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## Ultra84 (Jun 11, 2008)

^^
In the case of Budapest it's referring to city population and not the metro! Read my post just below the opening post!


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## Kaufmann (Mar 9, 2010)

*Essen (Metropolis Ruhr), Germany
*









Quelle:RuhrKultur2010

31. December 1964	730.598 inhabitans

31. Dezember 1974	665.354

31. Dezember 1984	625.705

31. Dezember 1994	617.955

31. Dezember 2005	585.430

31. Dezember 2006	583.198
31. Dezember 2007	582.140
31. Dezember 2008	579.759
31. Dezember 2009	576.259
31. Dezember 2010	574.635
31. Dezember 2011	573.468


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## Johnny Casher (Oct 22, 2012)

I wish Manila's like these cities (shrinking population). Ours grow by the millions or thousands every year. -_-


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## eddeux (Jun 16, 2010)

brisavoine said:


> In France the cities that have shrunk the most between the 1999 and 2009 censuses are the following. I have selected only the cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants. The figures here refer to the central communes (what would be called in other countries the 'inner city'). The whole metropolitan area may actually have grown while the central city declined (this is the case for our #1 for example), due to a flight to the suburbs.


Is it due to natural population aging and decline or are larger French cities attracting migrants?


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## Mannesmann (Feb 22, 2012)

In 2011 Census, Bucharest had almost 1,700,000 inh. (registered) in the city limits, but the metro was about 2,200,000 ( unofficial are almost 3,000,000) so, where is the shrink_ing? hno:_
Bucharest is by far, one of the largest and growing cities is Eastern Europe.


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## brisavoine (Mar 19, 2006)

èđđeůx;97561493 said:


> Is it due to natural population aging and decline or are larger French cities attracting migrants?


#5 Thiers:
population decline is due to flight to other metropolitan areas (probably Clermont-Ferrand and Lyon)

#4 Saint-Dizier:
population decline is due to flight to other metropolitan areas (probably Rheims and Paris)

#3 Biarritz:
population decline is due to natural population decline (lots of retired people there) and flight to the suburbs

#4 Vitry-le-François:
population decline is due to flight to other metropolitan areas (probably Rheims and Paris)

#5 Pointe-à-Pitre:
population decline of the inner city is due to flight to the suburbs and to Metropolitan France (Paris in particular), but the overall metropolitan area is still registering positive growth thanks to its birth rate


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## tita01 (Oct 21, 2011)

Philippines 

Fastest Declining Cities and Municipalities ( 2010 Census)
Incorporated places over 100,000 population

1. Jolo -15.70
2. Cavite city -3.31
3. San Juan -3.12
4. Malabon -2.84
5. Olongapo -2.68
6. Pasay -2.53
7. Norzagaray - 2.25
8. Manila -0.51
9. Hagonoy -0.51
10. Marikina -0.11


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## Lightness (Nov 3, 2006)

Oh, I didn't realise that the Philippines had shrinking cities. Apart from the good old burghers of Jolo fleeing the rampant jihad, which is understandable, why are the other cities shrinking if I may?


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## tita01 (Oct 21, 2011)

Lightness said:


> Oh, I didn't realise that the Philippines had shrinking cities. Apart from the good old burghers of Jolo fleeing the rampant jihad, which is understandable, why are the other cities shrinking if I may?


maybe lack of opportunities , jobs , poverty or peace and order


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