{{short description|Process whereby people move from urban areas to rural areas}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2020}}
'''Counterurbanization''', or '''deurbanization''', is a [[demographic]] and [[social]] process wherebyin which people move from [[urban area]]s to [[rural area]]s. It is, likeas [[suburbanization]], is inversely related to [[urbanization]]., Itand first occurredoccurs as a reaction to inner-city deprivation.<ref>{{Cite journal| url=http://ann.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/451/1/13| doi=10.1177/000271628045100103| title=Urbanization and Counterurbanization in the United States| journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science| volume=451| pages=13–20| year=1980| last1=Berry| first1=Brian J.L.| s2cid=145710851| access-date=2009-05-01| archive-date=2008-09-24| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924164450/http://ann.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/451/1/13| url-status=dead}}</ref> More recentRecent research has documented the social and political drivers of counterurbanization and its impacts in developingChina countriesand suchother asdeveloping China,countries which are currently undergoing thea process of mass urbanization.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1177/1466138110370412|title=Chinese consumers: The Romantic reappraisal|year=2010|last1=Griffiths|first1=Michael B.|last2=Chapman|first2=Malcolm|last3=Christiansen|first3=Flemming|journal=Ethnography|volume=11|issue=3|pages=331–357|s2cid=144152261}}</ref> ItCounterurbanization is one of the causes that can lead to [[shrinking cities]].
While counterurbanization manifests differently across the world, all forms revolve around the central idea of migration movement from a populated location to a less populated location. Clare J.A. Mitchell, an associate professor in the Department of Geography at the [[University of Waterloo]], argues that in Europe, counterurbanization involves a type of migration leading to deconcentration of one area to another that is beyond suburbanization or metro decentralization. Mitchell categorizes counterurbanization into three sub-types: ex-urbanization, displaced-urbanization, and anti-urbanization.<ref name="MakingSense">{{cite journal|last1=Mitchell|first1=Clare J.A|doi=10.1016/S0743-0167(03)00031-7|title=Making sense of counterurbanization|journal=Journal of Rural Studies|year=2004|volume=20|issue=1|pages=15–34}}</ref>