Quinze ans d'évolution des populations rurales françaises

The evolution over fifteen years of the French rural population - The decrease in the active farming population that has been the subject of much analysis can be reinserted in a vaster whole - that of country planning and. land use. A distinction must be made between farmers leaving the land and the population deserting the countryside, but the disappearance of a great many farmers often renders unprofitable many activities such as the service attracted by the existence of a population and by farming itself. When these changes in occupation lead to geographical modifications the areas concerned are caught up in a process of desertification. The only way to see that the country-side is sufficiently populated is to develop new activities there. The evolution of the whole rural population, the composition of the active population and its modifications between 1954 and the last census in 1968 are examined. From this study the fact emerges that the rapid decrease in the farming population over the fifteen years under consideration has not given rise to a comparable decrease in the rural population. The rate of decrease of the total population was 8 or 9 times less than that of farming households. With respect to the employment pattern, farmers are still the biggest group, but ceased to be the absolute majority in 1962. The non-agricultural occupations of the inhabitants of country " communes " are those that are non likely to expand (the building trade, civil engineering, agricultural industries, textiles, small trade), hence the continued existence of the rural population cannot necessarily the counted on. Only a determined policy to provide employment in the country-side can modify these tendencies.