Les spécificités démo-géographiques des territoires en France métropolitaine

The 1968-2006 demographic trends, analyzed at the district level, leads to identify spatial expression of main socio-demographic trends. These major socio-demographic trends involve economy and employment (growth of services and unemployment), lengthening of school duration and later beginning of the adult life, family formation and co-residence. Multidimensional analysis of the spatial expression of those general evolutions leads, in 2006, to identify 7 clusters of places (blue collar, rural tourist, urban tourist, urban poor, urban central – for Paris and other big cities –, suburbs). In rural areas these clusters of places are the result of the decrease of the farmers proportion, the growth of tourism services, the changes in industrial production and the urban sprawl. In urban areas these clusters are the results of some growing populations (students, white collars, unemployed, one-parent families)