Definition of "depopulation" [de•pop•u•la•tion]

• The act of depopulating or condition of being depopulated; the destruction or expulsion of inhabitants. (noun)

Wiktionary.org : Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

• "The formal announcement, expected from the government in coming days, would be the first official recognition that the March accident could force the long-term depopulation of communities near the plant, an eventuality that scientists and some officials have been warning about for months."
• "A remarkable quarter-century of productivity growth followed, accompanied by a low income-tax rate for corporations, encouragement of education, moderate wage levels, shrewdly selective incentives to attract foreign companies - not the regional-development pork-barrelling of the kind familiar to Canadians - and reversal of the long-term depopulation that went back to the potato famine of 1845-1849."
• "There will be countries and regions that will suffer long-term depopulation due to low fertility and emigration - but a combination of the two phenomena is mostly concentrated in eastern Europe, particularly in eastern Germany, Bulgaria and Ukraine."