Urbanisation

• urbanisation is the growth in the proportion of people living in urban areas
• around 55% of the world lives in urban areas
• HICs are more economically developed and have already experienced urbanisation - many people in HICs leave urban areas for rural areas meaning the rate of urbanisation is low
• LICs are less economically developed than HICs - only 30% of the populations currently live in urban areas - high rates of urbanisation
• NEEs are countries where economic development is increasing rapidly - their urban population is around 50% - their rate of urbanisation is steady in middle ground
• rural to urban migration is the movement of people from countryside to cities
• push factor = encourage people to leave an area
• pull factors = encourage people to move to an area
• push factors include natural disasters (damage property, farmland etc = costs a lot to repair), mechanised agriculture means less jobs, desertification can make land less productive meaning people cannot support themselves
• pull factors include more jobs, better healthcare and education, family may live in urban areas, better quality of life
• megacities (urban areas with more than 10 million residents) are more common due to the high rates of urbanisation