Processes of Social Change

Abstract

In Britain in 1801 about three quarters of the population lived in rural areas, by 1901 one quarter did. This process of ‘urbanisation’ has continued during the present century and it is only since the 1970s that the process appears to have halted, and to a limited extent reversed. This reversal is statistical rather than meaningful in terms of behaviour because the new country-dweller is likely to ‘commute’ into a town for work; and rural dwellers generally are much more dependent on towns for shopping, leisure facilities and education than they formerly were.