General

• Urban population


  people who live in urban areas
• Urbanisation


  the process by which an increasing percentage of a countries population move into urban areas (such as towns and cities)
• Mega-city


  an urban area with more then 10 million people in it
• HIC


  high income country

  abundance of resources

  money - higher average income

  tourism

  higher literacy rates

  availability of education
• LIC


  low income country

  war

  child labour

  lack of education - lower literacy rates

  pollution - poor air quality

  less resources - less safe drinking water

  poor hygiene - poor healthcare - low life expectancy

  poor quality of life - poor quality infrastructure
• Natural increase


  more children are born then people die
• rural to urban migration


  newcomers arrive in the city from the countryside
• Urbanisation in HIC's


  HIC's experienced urbanisation in the 18th, 19th, 20th century

  now - majority of their populations live in urban areas - so the rate of urbanisation is slow

  the rate of natural increase is slow as women have less children
• Urbanisation in LIC's


  LIC;s countries experience rapid urbanisation now

  the majority of their populations still live in rural areas - rate of rural-urban migration is high

  they move to cities due to push pull factors

  population in these cities is young - natural increase is high
• Urbanisation in South America


  even though these countries are not amongst the richest - they experienced urbanisation early and it has now slowed
• Push factors


  drive people away from an area

  war

  land degradation from farming

  extreme physical conditions - eg mountains

  farming is hard work with long hours and little pay

  limited food production

  lack of employment opportunities - lack of services - mechanism

  families don't own land - overpopulation
• pull factors


  draw people into an area

  better paid jobs

  comfortable housing - higher quality of life

  Religious and political activities

  better services - eg school, health

  more reliable sources of food

  more investment