Causes of Urban Growth
- The UN predicts that by 2030 over 60% of the world's population will live in an urban environment
- Urbanisation usually occurs because people move from rural to urban areas as a country develops
- HICs saw the majority of their urbanisation before 1950
- During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, industrialisation occurred in most towns and cities throughout Europe and North America
- Many people migrated from rural to urban areas for jobs in the rapidly expanding industries
Urban Population (% of total population)
1950 | 2000 | 2021 | |
World | 30% | 47% | 56% |
HICs | 53% | 76% | 81% |
NEEs | 20% | 41% | 54% |
LICs | 17% | 27% | 34% |
United Nations Population Division License: CC BY-4.0
- Since the 1950s, LICs have seen rapid growth in urbanisation, particularly in South America, Asia and Africa
- Between the 1950s and 2000, urban population living in NEEs have doubled and LICs by 2021, developed countries saw growth slow by less than half
- There are three main reasons for urbanisation in LICs:
- Mass rural-urban migration due to population growth and lack of resources in rural areas: Push factors
- The lure of the city and the opportunities it represents, although many find informal employment and poor housing
- Natural increase: As development occurs, health care improves; this reduces infant mortality and death rates, although birth rates tend to remain high