Knowledge of the spatial distribution of populations at finer spatial scales is of significant value and fundamental to many applications such as environmental change, urbanisation, regional planning, public health, and disaster management¹.

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION IN SWITZERLAND

Switzerland had a population of 8.57 million as of mid-2019. More than 75% of the population live in the central plain, which stretches between the Alps and the Jura Mountains and from Geneva in the southwest to the High Rhine and Lake Constance in the northeast.

INTERNAL MIGRATION & CORE-PERIPHERY PATTERNS IN SWITZERLAND

Internal migration in Switzerland follows patterns of deconcentration and counter-urbanisation in the second half of the last century. There is a trend of moving away from large densely populated districts and towards smaller, more sparsely populated and medium sized districts.

Suburbanization and counter-urbanization were occurring and core urban centers were growing slower than smaller urban and rural areas. During the last decade of the 20th century, most major (core) cities lost population to smaller urban and rural areas. The cantons of Aargau, Vaud, Ticino, Thurgau, and Fribourg were net gainers from internal migration, while Basel-City, Grison, Bern, Geneva, and St. Gall were the biggest losers.

MEGACITY GROWTH

Bibliography

S Kahsai, M., & V Schaeffer, P. (2010). Deconcentration, counter-urbanization, or trend reversal? The population distribution of Switzerland, revisited. The Open Urban Studies Journal, 3(1).