The 1970's ushered in widespread population deconcentration, seen in the pervasive shift of the United States population down the size-of-place scale. To document population changes in various sized places in the country from 1950 to 1980 and to show the pervasiveness of urban-rural deconcentration in nonmetropolitan areas, researchers examined census data from 1950 to 1980 and data from metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties and places, taking into account metropolitan adjacency and economic homogeneity. According to the data, the 1970's saw continued suburbanization, with absolute declines in the nation's larger metropolitan centers. Growth rates exceeded the national average in smaller metropolitan cities and exceeded the metropolitan rates in nonmetropolitan areas. In nonmetropolitan areas, rural population growth exceeded urban population growth. Not simply restricted to areas within easy commuting distance of larger nonmetropolitan urban centers, rural growth spread to less urban nonmetropolitan areas as well. The pattern of nonmetropolitan decentralization was geographically and spatially pervasive, affecting most regions (especially the West) and occurring in the least urbanized and most remote parts of the country. The data suggest a historic shift in the patterns of population settlement in the United States. (SB)