Although the effects of urban shrinkage on quality of life and the built environment have received a great deal of attention, the characteristics of those experiencing these impacts have been much less studied. This is ironic, as urban shrinkage or depopulation is by nature a demographic phenomenon: city sizes evolve precisely because people move in and out, are born, and die. Moreover, the demographic processes that contribute to shrinking cities—out-migration and death—are selective and so they also govern who remains behind in cities as they shrink. It is this latter group that is the focus of this research. The analysis contributes to the literature on shrinking cities through its novel consideration of community-level exposure to depopulation. In particular, it investigates who is impacted by loss; the extent to which population loss is experienced disproportionately across urban space and demographic subgroups; and whether decline occurring at multiple spatial scales magnifies exposure for some groups more than others. Findings show that, at both city and census tract levels, demographic characteristics of growth and loss areas are different and, at all levels, some groups are more likely than others to be living in a loss-impacted area.

尽管城市收缩对生活质量和建筑环境的影响受到了广泛关注，但对经历这些影响的人的特征的研究却少得多。这具有讽刺意味，因为城市收缩或人口减少本质上是一种人口现象：城市规模的演变正是因为人们进出、出生和死亡。此外，导致城市萎缩的人口过程——外迁和死亡——是有选择性的，因此它们也决定了在城市萎缩时谁留在了城市。后一组是本研究的重点。该分析通过对社区层面人口减少风险的新颖考虑，为有关收缩城市的文献做出了贡献。特别是，它调查谁受到损失的影响；城市空间和人口子群体中人口流失的程度不成比例；以及在多个空间尺度上发生的下降是否会比其他人更多地放大某些群体的暴露。调查结果表明，在城市和人口普查区层面，增长和损失地区的人口特征是不同的，在所有层面上，某些群体比其他群体更有可能生活在受损失影响的地区。