Processes of urban centralization: Individual factors and metropolitan typologies

The return to the city constitutes a phenomenon of great interest. Some individuals and households seek centrality, although the general trend continues to be suburbanization. Our contribution aims to relate studies on residential behavior to those addressing the recovery of the central urban districts in order to ascertain whether these theories correctly explain the reality of Spanish metropolitan cities. Data were taken from the 2011 population census and binary logistic regression models were the main method used. Our models confirm the explanatory capacity of the variables described in the literature, but at the same time reveal a certain bias: they work better in large areas than in smaller areas. It is not a mere question of scale, but rather the former are going through a recentralization phase, while the latter are in a process of concentration.