Twenty years of suburbanization in Spain (1981-2001) : A profile of its protagonists

Suburbanization, as a key part of metropolitan dynamics, has brought critical changes to the urban landscape of Spain throughout the last decades. Paralleling this metropolitan growth, the characteristics of the individual agents taking part in it were transformed. This research focuses on changes in the age, sex and occupational profiles of individuals participating in residential mobility; a wider phenomenon in which suburbanization is
the most representative process. Population mobility matrixes from the 1991 and 2001 censuses have been used. Data from the different metropolitan areas have been aggregated and then analyzed as a whole. The results show that the age pattern of metropolitan mobility has changed significantly, and in particular, that high residential mobility levels were widespread in all social groups during the 90s. This evolution confirms the growing weight
of mobility in Spanish urban life.