Urban Growth
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Urbanisation is:
The process by which an increasing percentage of a country's population live in towns and cities
- More people now live in towns and cities than in rural areas
- Urbanisation varies across the globe
- Advanced countries (ACs) show the highest levels of urbanisation, with the lowest levels being in Africa and SE Asia
- However, urbanisation growth rate differs between and within countries globally
Table of Global Urban Trends
Advanced | Emerging | Developing | |
Rate of urban growth: | Slow or declining | Rapid | Fastest rates of urbanisation |
Examples: | UK, Germany, Japan, and America | India, Russia, Brazil and China | Sub-Saharan countries such as Rwanda and Ethiopia and Asia such as Vietnam, Bangladesh and the Philippines |
Causes: |
Because the industrial revolution 'pulled' the population into developing urban areas at that time Nowadays, many people in ACs are being 'pushed' away from overcrowded cities to rural settlements ACs tend to have good transport and communication networks therefore, people can live in rural areas and commute to cities or work from home |
Key trade hub cities are seeing greater growth than others due to investment from the government and TNCs Cities such as Lagos in Nigeria, Shanghai in China, Mumbai in India, Sao Paulo in Brazil and St Petersburg in Russia - none of these are the country's capital Trade such as finance, electronics and manufactured goods |
Asia is expected to contribute towards 60% of global growth by 2030 Most new economic development is concentrated in the big cities through investment in low-cost manufacturing of textiles, garments and shoes Push-pull factors lead to high rates of rural-to-urban migration Cities are experiencing higher levels of natural increase in population |
- ACs have lower rates of urbanisation as towns and cities already exist
- In 1900 there were just 2 'millionaire'' cities (London and Paris), by 2018 this had grown to 512
- Due to modern transport and communication, urban areas are sprawling into rural regions to create conurbations, further adding to the growth of urban areas