depopulation

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a substantial decline in the number of people living in a place

   Decades of outward migration caused severe depopulation in the mountain villages.

2. 2
   noun

   the act or process of removing, displacing, or destroying a population

   The war led to the depopulation of several border districts.

From Middle English depopulacion and Latin depopulatio, from depopulari ('to ravage, lay waste'), later analyzed in English as depopulate + -ion. The modern demographic sense emphasizes population loss rather than physical devastation.

Topics