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arXiv · 1403.3918

Memory endowed US cities and their demographic interactions

A. Hernando·R. Hernando·A. Plastino·E. Zambrano
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Abstract

A quantitative understanding of cities' demographic dynamics is becoming a potentially useful tool for planning sustainable growth. The concomitant theory should reveal details of the cities' past and also of its interaction with nearby urban conglomerates for providing a reasonably complete picture. Using the exhaustive database of the Census Bureau in a time window of 170 years, we exhibit here empirical evidence for time and space correlations in the demographic dynamics of US counties, with a characteristic memory-time of 25 years and typical distances of interaction of 200 km. These correlations are much larger than those observed in an European country (Spain), giving to the US a more coherent evolution. We also measure the resilience of US cities to historical events, finding a demographical post-traumatic amnesia after wars (as the Civil War) or economic crisis (as the 1929 Stock Market Crash).

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A. Hernando, R. Hernando, A. Plastino, E. Zambrano. 2014-03-16. Memory endowed US cities and their demographic interactions. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2014.1185

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