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Existing empirical work has analysed the impacts of COVID‐19 on mortality, fertility and international migration. Less is known about the ways in which the COVID‐19 pandemic has influenced the patterns of internal migration. Anecdotal reports of mass migration from large cities to less populated areas have emerged, but lack of data has prevented empirically assessing this hypothesis. Drawing on geographically granular administrative population register data, we aim to analyse the extent of change in the patterns of internal migration across the urban hierarchy in Spain during 2020. Our results show a decline of 2.5% in the number of internal migration moves, particularly during the early stages of the pandemic, returning to pre‐pandemic levels in late 2020. Results also reveal unusually large net migration losses in core cities and net migration gains in rural areas. Net migration losses in cities and gains in rural areas particularly accumulated following the elimination of the strict lockdown measures in June. Yet, these net losses and gains trended to pre‐pandemic levels in late 2020, and movements between cities, and between cities and suburbs, continued to dominate the internal migration system. Thus, while the COVID‐19 pandemic exerted notable changes in the geographic balance of internal migration flows, these changes appear to have been temporary and did not significantly alter the existing structures of the national migration system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study verifies if spatial variability in local fertility reflects the shift from a monocentric dense settlement model towards a polycentric metropolis organised in central cores and subcentral locations. The spatial distribution of a crude birth rate in Barcelona's province was investigated for a long time span (1975–2018), identifying distinctive trends within five concentric rings around Barcelona at four subperiods (1975–1985, 1986–1996, 1997–2007 and 2008–2018). Using multivariate exploratory statistics, local fertility rates were correlated with background indicators delineating the socio‐economic profile of each municipality in the study area. Fertility rates decreased with the distance from downward Barcelona and with population density. In the first time interval (1975–1985), fertility levels—higher in subcentral municipalities and peri‐urban locations than in downtown Barcelona—were positively associated with urban growth. In the following two subperiods (1986–1996 and 1997–2007), the contribution of local fertility to urban growth decreased significantly, reaching the lowest‐low figures at the end of the 1980s. In the most recent time interval (2008–2018), a moderate (and spatially heterogeneous) recovery of fertility rates was observed in subcentral locations. Demographic processes underlying Barcelona's expansion provide evidence in favour of a positive relationship between polycentric development and local fertility. Our article finally debates on the use of fertility indicators in the assessment of monocentric versus polycentric (metropolitan) growth in advanced economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prepandemic unbridled growth of tourism has triggered a significant debate regarding the future of cities; several authors suggest that neighbourhood change produced by tourism should be conceived as a form of gentrification. Yet research on population shifts—a fundamental dimension of gentrification—in such neighbourhoods is scarce. Our exploration of the Gòtic area in Barcelona, using quantitative and qualitative techniques, reveals a process of population restructuring characterised by a decrease of long‐term residents and inhabited dwellings, and the arrival of young and transnational gentrifiers that are increasingly mobile and form a transient population. We then use some insights from the mobilities literature to make sense of these results. In the gentrification of the Gòtic, the attractiveness of the area for visitors and for a wider palette of transnational dwellers feeds one another, resulting in an uneven negotiation whereby more wealthy and 'footloose' individuals gain access and control of space and housing over less mobile and more dependent populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the rise of unmarried cohabitation in Latin American countries during the last 30 years of the twentieth century, both at the national and regional levels. It documents that this major increase occurred in regions with and without traditional forms of cohabitation alike. In addition, the striking degree of catching up of cohabitation among the better-educated population segments is illustrated. The connections between these trends and economic (periods of high inflation) and cultural (reduction of stigmas in ethical domains) factors are discussed. The conclusion is that the periods of inflation and hyperinflation may have been general catalysts, but no clear indications of correlation were found between such economic factors and the rise in cohabitation. The shift toward more tolerance for hitherto stigmatized forms of conduct (e.g., homosexuality, euthanasia, abortion, singleparent household) is in line with the rise of cohabitation in regions of Argentina, Chile, and Brazil where cohabitation used to be uncommon. Further rises in cohabitation during the first decade of the twenty-first century are expected in a number of countries (e.g., mexico) despite conditions of much lower inflation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]