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Report n°1: The new constraints of urban development

Periurbanisation in France : contrasted development

In France, up to the end of the sixties, the rural exodus emptied the countryside and allowed small communities that now form urban centres to develop faster than all the other parts of our metropolitan areas.

From the seventies onwards, towns started to stretch out and become somewhat diluted: in other words, to develop according to the urban sprawl model. It was then the municipalities within periurban belts that experienced the liveliest growth, due to the phenomenon of urban deconcentration: less affluent households move away from town centres to live on the outskirts, looking for more suitable accommodation and more space.

Furthermore, this deconcentration of the population seems to be clearly linked to the rise in home ownership. People also talk, however, of employment sprawl, which accounts for the gradual saturation of the most central areas and the increase in prices of apartments or offices over time, primarily because they are relatively scarce. In parallel, urban units widen due to the inclusion of urbanised zones containing municipalities that were previously rural, but which have been urbanised as a result of the trend towards single-family housing.

Finally, the maximum intensity of the process of urban deconcentration was at a point between the 1975 and 1982 censuses: the central towns of urban areas with over 10,000 residents saw their populations decrease at the rate of -0.64% per year, the suburbs grew at the annual rate of +0.83% and periurban belts by +2.85%. In terms of density, the central towns altogether lost 151 inhabitants per square kilometre. The density increase within the belts appears to be at a modest rate of +14 residents per square kilometre on average. In fact, it was the suburbs that became denser during this period (+53 inhabitants per squarekilometre), even if they did not experience the most spectacular rates of development.

Since the early 1980s, the population flow towards periurban areas died down, and the contrasts eased as a result of both the slowdown in the growth of periurban municipalities and a degree of renewal within urban centres. During the period 1982-1990, the population loss from central towns decreased (-0.17% per year, compared with -0.64% for the previous period) while the belts grew less rapidly and the suburban population remained stable.

Since 1990, periurbanisation has slowed down. The gradual concentration of the population within the predominantly urban area, which includes urban areas, urban centres, periurban belts and polycentric communities, has, in the last decade, continued the ongoing deceleration which began in the early 1980s.

 Finally, three trends can be observed from the last decade:

  • The decline in the proportion of urban centres, which began at the start of the eighties, is continuing, although at a slower pace
  • The proportion of periurban belts is continuing to grow, albeit moderately
  • The relative vitality of rural areas under urban influence suggests a geographical extension of the periurban belts.