Monitoring and visualising sub-national migration trends in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Urban policy makers and service providers need to understand the magnitude and dynamics of population migration to and from towns and cities since both the internal and international components are increasingly important in driving urban demographic development. In this chapter, an information system is outlined with a simple interface that allows migration data alongside data for natural change for selected districts or city regions to be tabulated and visualised so that time series trends and spatial patterns can be identified and compared. The data suggest that, during the 2000s, the major cities in the UK collectively experienced significant population growth, a large increase in net international migration and a decline in the relatively longstanding process of counterurbanisation.