evidence: Worldwide trends in the scientific production on rural depopulation, a bibliometric analysis using bibliometrix R-tool [...] In the first half of the 20th century, only a few researchers identified rural depopulation as a phenomenon worthy of note. At the time, Rural Depopulation was studied mainly from an economic perspective where the technification of agriculture and its consequent increase of product per worker were seen as being responsible for the acceleration of rural depopulation in North America, Australia and Western Europe (Kristjanson and Schaffner, 1949; Thompson, 1925), regions which had already been linked to rural depopulation by Longstaff (1893). In addition to technological developments, the superiority of amenities and job opportunities in urban areas were seen as a point of attraction for rural people (Bryce, 1915; Carver, 1927). No less important, variations in climate were also mentioned in some studies as an additional variable related to the causes of rural depopulation (Gentilli, 1949) or, even, at that time. [...] A bibliometric analysis, which is a quantitative approach for analysing academic literature using bibliographies to provide the description, evaluation and monitoring of published research (Garfield et al., 1964; White and McCain, 1989), was used to analyse the trends in the field of rural depopulation. The methodological aim was to analyse publications, citations and sources of information.