Hinterland is a German word that means "the land behind" a city, port, or similar. Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his Handbook of Commercial Geography. Here are some key points about hinterland:
- In shipping usage, a ports hinterland is the area that it serves, both for imports and for exports.
- The term is also used to refer to the area around a city or town.
- More generally, hinterland can refer to the rural area economically tied to an urban catchment area.
- In colonial usage, the term was applied to the surrounding areas of former European colonies in Africa, which, although not part of the colony itself, were influenced by the colony.
- By analogous general economic usage, hinterland can refer to the area surrounding a service from which customers are attracted, also called the market area.
- In the United States, and particularly in the American Midwest, it is used to describe any sparsely populated area where the infrastructure is underdeveloped.
Hinterland can also refer to a region lying inland from a coast, a region remote from urban areas, or a region lying beyond major metropolitan or cultural centers. It is often used to describe the less developed parts of a country, such as the back country. The size of a hinterland can depend on geography, or on the ease, speed, and cost of transportation between the catchment area and the hinterland.