Deurbanizing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of prompting individuals to leave urban environments and transition to more rural locales is a notable trend in societal movement
2. Movement away from city centers to rural regions signifies a shift that is often seen in population dynamics
3. The process of encouraging or facilitating the migration from urban areas to less populated, rural settings reflects a noteworthy demographic shift

Etymology: Deurbanizing is built from "urbanize" with the prefix "de-", which in English means "reversing" or "removing" the action of the base word. To urbanize something is to make it urban, bringing city characteristics such as dense population, infrastructure and services to a place, so to deurbanize is to strip those qualities away and return a place toward a less urban state. The prefix comes from Latin "de-", which carried senses of removal, reversal and down-from. English has long attached it to verbs this way, as in "decentralize" or "deforest", and "deurbanize" follows the same pattern. The word is a straightforward formation rather than an old borrowed term, so its history lies in the parts it joins together. In the context you describe, the word refers to people moving out of cities into countryside, the reverse of the migration that drove urban growth. Its meaning is transparent from its two halves, which is why it reads clearly to anyone who knows "urban".