Where Do We Live - Town And Country, Now And Then, Urbanization And Density, Housing Trends: Big Is Beautiful

In answering the question posed in this chapter, we go a bit back and start at a time when we had a total population of under 4 million, in 1790. At that time the entire urban population of the United States was smaller than the population of Amarillo, Texas, is today. Then we lived in the country. Now we live in the cities. In fact, the largest single population concentration is in the suburbs that surround our cities.

We explore this subject in two panels and also look at the density of our settlement. We are now 80% urbanized, but we still have lots and lots of room, especially in comparison with other countries around the world.

We turn next to housing and, in three panels, examine trends in housing stock. The big trend is that we are building ever-bigger homes, but that most of us are still living in fairly small amounts of space. The dream of home ownership continues, but some groupings still rent more than they own.

We look next at the interesting change in our regional distribution across the United States and examine how settlement patterns have changed over the period of a century. These patterns of population shift led to the examination of our mobility. We have certainly moved about a great deal during our history. Are we still doing it? The last panel in this chapter presents some information on our restless to and fro.