Disappearing Villages and Expanding Suburbs: Mapping Georgia’s Silent Internal Migration

Globally, rural-to-urban migration is reshaping geographic and demographic landscapes in ways that go beyond official census data. According to the United Nations, in 1950 only 30% of the global population lived in cities, but by 2023 that figure had risen to over 56%. Countries like China and Turkey have witnessed the abandonment of thousands of villages as people move either to industrial centers or to rapidly growing suburban areas just beyond city limits. The result is not just urban expansion, but a redefinition of how land is lived on and valued.

This trend is equally visible in parts of Europe. In the past decade alone, countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, and Latvia have seen double-digit percentage declines in rural populations. At the same time, so-called peri-urban zones — semi-rural, semi-urban belts surrounding cities — are absorbing much of this demographic shift. These spaces, while densely populated, often lack basic public infrastructure such as transportation, sewage, or schools, but they grow rapidly, fueled by cheaper land and informal construction.

Georgia is undergoing a similar transformation. According to the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure, over 1,700 villages in Georgia have been fully or partially abandoned in the past three decades. Some were emptied during the economic collapse of the 1990s, while others have lost residents more recently due to the chronic absence of basic services such as healthcare, schools, and jobs. In parallel, new suburban belts have emerged around Tbilisi, Batumi, and Kutaisi. Areas like Martkopi, Tabakhmela, Tsavkisi, Tskneti, the outer edges of Gldani, and Chakvi have quietly transformed into residential zones — often built incrementally and informally.

What makes Georgia’s case distinctive is both the pace of this change and the lack of institutional planning to manage it. Many of these areas have been built outside formal zoning laws. Residents — often internally displaced persons (IDPs), people from mountainous or economically collapsed regions — construct homes in steps, often without permits or long-term infrastructure planning. These zones may be technically outside city limits, but functionally they are part of the urban economy.

While Tbilisi’s official population stands at around 1.2 million, mobile network and electricity data suggest the real number could be 10–15% higher. This hidden population lives in unregistered suburban homes, yet commutes, shops, and uses public services in the city daily. What emerges is an invisible urban expansion, accompanied by a quiet demographic erosion of rural Georgia.

Government strategies, such as the 2021–2027 Rural Development Strategy, aim to reverse rural depopulation by offering support for farming, digital access, and rural infrastructure. However, the gravitational pull of cities — especially for young people — remains far stronger than any rural incentive. Meanwhile, Georgia’s suburbs are growing without oversight, and its villages are quietly, but steadily, vanishing.