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AbstractThis paper aims to sketch rural population decline in Mexico. A comprehensive multi‐scale documentation of Mexico's urban and rural fabric and its depopulation dynamics is undertaken. This paper does not identify the causes and effects of rural depopulation, but aims to detect its geographical presence in a manner which other approaches are unable to do. The granularity of rural depopulation is identified as manifested at four different scales: national, state, municipal, and local village scale. We use census data for the period 2000–2010. We relate rural depopulation to spatio‐geographical features found in the literature; the relationship of depopulating territories with urban ones and the altitude range in which they are located. We find that proximity to and remoteness from urban areas as well as that of altitude do not follow the typical patterns often observed elsewhere. Unlike that shown in other countries, in Mexico, rural depopulation is manifested mostly in lower‐lying areas and despite the fact that most of the country is at altitude. Rural depopulation and disappearance occur mainly in the areas of plains below 1,000 metres above sea level, regardless of the population density of the territories where they were located. Also, our multi‐scaling approach has allowed us to identify not just at what scale the phenomenon of rural depopulation is observed, but also, to identify the areas in which the phenomenon is manifested regionally or locally. As we see, much of the phenomenon is concentrated in different areas to what national narratives suggest.

AbstractAddressing the pressure that population growth puts on the environment has become a high‐level policy priority. Less discussed is the role of population decline in either enhancing or degrading the natural environment, and how the its reshaping can help new forms of de‐peripheralization and de‐marginalization. A long‐term trajectory of marginalization and peripheralization of depopulating places can be reversed in certain situations by adopting a more holistic and sustainable analytical and policy framing. To do this, here we integrate different types of diagnosis frameworks. The first, based on factors that the literature indicates as factors leading to negative effects of depopulation, for which the revitalization of such places is suggested, and the second, proposed in this paper, which adds the integrity of the ecosystems involved in places undergoing depopulation processes. Our findings suggest that as we add ecosystem integrity factor to observations, in some cases, revitalization is possible even in the localities displaying the potentially negative effects of depopulation decrease. This suggests that whereas in some places a policy‐managed abandonment may be appropriate to release human pressures over such degraded ecosystems, in other cases, revitalization may be a viable alternative for such settlements.