An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a

high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. This is the core of
a metropolitan statistical area in the United States, if it contains a population of more than
50,000.[1]
Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them
as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbanism, the term "urban area" contrasts to rural
areas such as villages and hamlets; in urban sociology or urban anthropology it contrasts
with natural environment.[citation needed]
The development of earlier predecessors of modern urban areas during the urban revolution of
the 4th millennium BCE[2] led to the formation of human civilization and ultimately to
modern urban planning, which along with other human activities such as exploitation of natural
resources has led to a human impact on the environment.

Historical growth[edit]
In 1950, around the world, 764 million people lived in urban areas. By 2014, it was 3.9 billion.
The change was driven by a combination of increased total population and increased percent of
population living in urban areas.[3] In 2009, the number of people living in urban areas (3.42
billion) surpassed the number living in rural areas (3.41 billion), and since then the world has
become more urban than rural.[4] This was the first time that the majority of the world's population
lived in a city.[5] In 2014 there were 7.3 billion people living on the planet,[6] of which the global
urban population comprised 3.9 billion. The Population Division of the United Nations
Department of Economic and Social Affairs at that time predicted the urban population would
occupy 68% of the world population by 2050, with 90% of that growth coming from Africa and
Asia.[7]

Urbanization[edit]
Main article: Urbanization

Urban land area (km ), 2010

2 [8]

Urban areas with at least one million inhabitants in 2006

Urban areas are created and further developed by the process of urbanization. They are
measured for various purposes, including analyzing population density and urban sprawl. Urban
areas are also mostly found in the United
States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Japan and Australia and many other countries
where the urbanization rate is over 80%.[citation needed]
Unlike an urban area, a metropolitan area includes not only the urban area, but also satellite
cities plus intervening rural land that is socio-economically connected to the urban core city,
typically by employment ties through commuting, with the urban core city being the primary labor
market.
The concept of an "urban area" as used in economic statistics should not be confused with the
concept of the "urban area" used in road safety statistics. This term was first created by
Geographer Brian Manning. The last concept is also known as "built-up area in road safety".
According to the definition by the Office for National Statistics, "Built-up areas are defined as land
which is 'irreversibly urban in character', meaning that they are characteristic of a town or city.
They include areas of built-up land with a minimum of 20 hectares (200,000 m2; 49 acres). Any
areas [separated by] less than 200 metres [of non-urban space] are linked to become a single
built-up area.[9]
Argentina and Japan are countries where the urbanization rate is over 90% while Australia,
Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico and the United States are countries where the urbanization rate is
between 80% and 90%.[citation needed]

Largest urban areas[edit]

There are two measures of the degree of urbanization of a population. The first, urban
population, describes the percentage of the total population living in urban areas, as defined by
the country. The second measure, rate of urbanization, describes the projected average rate of
change of the size of the urban population over the given period of time. According
to Urbanization by sovereign state article, the world as a whole is 56.2% urbanized, with roughly
one-quarter of the countries reported as greater than 80% urbanized. Data is taken from the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook estimates from 2020.[10]
See also: List of largest cities
According to Demographia, these are the 200 largest urban areas in the world by population (as
of 2023):[11]

hide

Populatio
Urban Area Country
n

1 Tokyo-Yokohama Japan 37,785,000

2 Jakarta Indonesia 35,386,000

3 Delhi India 31,190,000

4 Guangzhou-Foshan China 27,119,000

5 Mumbai India 25,189,000

6 Manila Philippines 24,156,000

7 Shanghai China 24,042,00