Europe faces serious demographic imbalances: increasingly, populations are concentrated in urban areas and their surroundings, while rural areas face depopulation. Thanks to a simple methodology identifying the trends in the different settlement structure, this article explores the causes that can justify the formation of such spatial trends through an econometric analysis. Both phenomena can be considered using central Spain as a case study. The area of more than 8 million inhabitants includes the city of Madrid and can be extended to other regions due to its simplicity and the wide availability of the included explanatory variables. This article categorizes nonurban areas into urban–rural and rural areas using a methodology that enables a historical perspective for the last eight decades. The findings are significant for infrastructure policies and territorial cohesion.