Demographic trends and depopulation in small cities: dynamics in Brazil and Argentina

The urbanization process has intensified globally, but demographic trends indicate that it is increasingly concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, while inland territories, particularly small towns, are experiencing a process of depopulation. Some relative data on the growth of some regionally significant cities shows a process of demographic deconcentration, but when absolute data is considered, it can be inferred that this is still an insignificant process, given the urban primacy of large metropolitan areas and also the secondary concentrations, punctuated by medium-sized cities. This paper draws on the most recent censuses conducted in Brazil and Argentina to examine these dynamics. The aim is to analyze demographic trends based on their spatialization, by types of human settlement, with a particular attention to the depopulation of small towns and the initiatives aimed at mitigating or reversing this demographic decline. The findings, based on the latest demographic censuses from both countries and supplemented by other statistical sources, reveal similar processes, albeit with different forms of problematization, formal territorial structuring and methodology of the aforementioned censuses.