paper 2 - the world around us - people of the planet

• Rapid urbanisation


  The fast growth of urban populations
• LIDCs (Less Industrialized Developing Countries) are experiencing the fastest growth in urbanisation
• Urban populations in LIDCs are expected to increase significantly by 2050
• Causes of rapid urbanisation in LIDCs

  • Push factors
  • Pull factors
• Push factors

  • Factors that push people out
• Pull factors


  • Factors that pull people into a place
• Once people have arrived in the city and found employment and housing, they tend to have children, resulting in a rapid rate of population growth, particularly in LIDCs where there is a large, youthful population
• ACs (Advanced Countries) tend to have the opposite problem: an ageing population
• Causes of rapid population growth in LIDC cities

  • Push factors
  • Natural growth
• Environmental push factors from villages

  • Lack of food
• Economic pull factors into cities

  • Better job opportunities
• Internal growth meaning


  When people who have moved into the cities have children, expanding the population
• Counter-Urbanisation meaning


  The movement of people out of urban areas and into rural areas
• Rural-Urbanisation meaning


  The increase of people moving into urban areas from rural ones
• Urbanisation meaning


  The increase in the proportion of people living in towns and cities
• What is an informal sector


  Working without tax - this occurs commonly in LIDCs due to lack of jobs
• Why are cities growing fastest in LIDCs


  Because of the growth of the secondary sector (these jobs attract people to the city)
• Development


  The progress in economic growth, use of technology and improving welfare that a country has made. When a country develops it basically gets better for the people living there-their quality of life improves (e.g wealth, health and safety).
• Types of development


  • Social development
  • Economic development
  • Environmental development
  • Sustainable development
• Social development


  To do with people and society. It is about the improvement that has been made by a country improving the quality of life of people who live there. This could be by improving literacy levels through access to education, healthcare and increasing life expectancy.
• Economic development


  About the improvement that has been made by a country in terms of wealth. This could include the value of goods and services that a country is producing or the proportion (amount) of people who are working in primary, secondary, tertiary or quaternary jobs.
• Environmental development


  Recognises the importance of the natural world and includes looking at how countries are monitoring greenhouse gas emissions (air quality), or what they are doing to improve water quality.
• Sustainable development


  Means that the needs of the present generations will be met while protecting the needs of the future. Resources can not be exhausted and environments need to be protected. It is a balance. For example: using renewable energy sources rather than depleting stocks of oil and gas.
• Geographers find it useful to be able to measure how developed places are, and to compare them and see how they change over time. To do this they use development indicators.
• What is GNI per capita (Gross national income)


  The value of all products, taxes and income from abroad that a country has per year in US dollars
• What is the development gap

  How big the difference between countries at different levels of development is
• What factors influence the development gap


  • Health

  • Education

  • Standards of living
• What is the Human Development Index (HDI)


  Measures life expectancy, education and income per capita to give countries a ranking and a score from 0 to 1
• What is a megacity


  Cities with a population over 10 million - some examples of megacities are Tokyo, Moscow and São Paulo
• What is a world city 


  A globally important or relevant city - some examples of world cities are London, New York and Paris