Urbanisation

• Urban areas are growing rapidly and face a range of opportunities and challenges.
• Urban planning is important to ensure that the opportunities are maximised and the challenges are minimised.
• The world's population is growing rapidly and reached 7.9 billion people in 2022.
• The highest rates of population growth are occurring in developing countries, such as Uganda, Malawi and Niger.
• Pull factors of more jobs, higher wages, better living conditions, better education and health services, and better facilities are also factors that attract people to move from rural to urban areas.
• Push factors of unemployment include lower wages, crop failure, poor living conditions, poor health and education services, and few facilities.
• Natural disasters and civil war are factors that can lead to people migrating from rural to urban areas.
• Some countries are experiencing population decline, for example Japan, Russia and Romania.
• Today more than 55% of the world's population live in urban areas.
• The number of cities with over 10 million people is increasing.
• These cities are called megacities.
• There are now at least 33 megacities in the world.
• The top 10 megacities are: Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, Beijing, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Cairo, Mumbai, Dhaka, and Osaka.
• São Paulo is the most populous urban area in Brazil with a population of 21,846,507.
• Migration is the movement of people into or out of the city.
• Tokyo is the most populous urban area in Japan with a population of 37,435,191.
• Cairo is the most populous urban area in Egypt with a population of 20,484,965.
• Shangai is the most populous urban area in China with a population of 26,317,104.
• Dhaka is the most populous urban area in Bangladesh with a population of 20,283,552.
• Delhi is the most populous urban area in India with a population of 29,399,141.
• Mexico City is the most populous urban area in Mexico with a population of 21,671,908.
• Osaka is the most populous urban area in Japan with a population of 19,222,665.
• Beijing is the most populous urban area in China with a population of 20,035,455.
• Mumbai is the most populous urban area in India with a population of 20,185,064.
• More and more people are leaving rural areas and moving to cities, a process known as rural to urban migration.
• People move because of push factors, which are things that make people want to leave rural areas, and pull factors, which are the things that attract people to a city.
• The population of cities usually changes in one of two ways: Natural increase is the natural growth of a population due to the number of births exceeding deaths.