Geography 1050

The geography of cities

URBANIZATION
or

HOW CITIES GROW

 Outline

1. Global patterns of urbanization

2. Differences in urbanization between MDCs and

LDCs

3. Urbanization and the population question

4. Urban service provision and urban economies in

LDC cities
 URBANIZATION & CITIES

• Urbanization refers to the proportion of people in living

in cities.
• It also refers to the process in which rural populations
move to urban areas.
• Urbanization refers to all of the cities in a country,
considered as an urban system.
• The urban system is the network of individual cities
within a region or country.
The World At Night
Urban and Rural Population,
Less Developed Countries
1950 to 2025
 Urbanization

• The urbanization curve is typically logistic or S-shaped

 <1.5X ~3X

% of population living
in urban areas in
major world regions,
1950, 1975, 2000 and 2025

2X
~4X ~3X
 Sources of Urbanization

• The urban system of a country grows mainly by:

1. Natural population increase (births – deaths)

2. Migration from rural areas (especially in countries with
large rural populations)
3. Immigration from other countries (especially in Europe and
North America)
4. Reclassification of urban boundaries to encompass
formerly rural areas
 Outline

1. Global patterns of urbanization

2. Differences in urbanization between MDCs and

LDCs

3. Urbanization and the population question

4. Urban service provision and urban economies in

LDC cities
 Urbanization in MDCs and LDCs
• MDCs
– Slow pre-industrial growth
– Rapid industrial growth
– Slows again once most
previously rural populations
are in cities
– Europe, North America,
Australia and Japan, the
population is 75% to 80%
urban.
– Canada is 80% urbanized.
• LDCs
– Rapid urbanization without
proportional industrialization
(population growth, land
tenure)
– By 2020 majority of LDC
population will live in urban
areas of 1 million+
– By 2020 most megacities of
10 million+ will be in LDCs
 Urbanization

MDC urbanization

QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

LDC urbanization

• The urbanization curve is typically logistic or S-shaped

 Urban Growth is Speeding Up

Time required to reach 2 million population:

Rome, Italy 2000 years

Vienna, Austria 400 years
Vancouver, B.C. 115 years
Shenzhen, China 20 years
 Share of World Population Growth Urban and Rural Areas LDCs and MDCs 1950 to 2025

• Over the next quarter century, increases in urbanization will be almost entirely attributable
to sub-Saharan Africa and Asia
Cities with 10 million or more people
2015
 Outline

1. Global patterns of urbanization

2. Differences in urbanization between MDCs and

LDCs

3. Urbanization and the population question

4. Urban service provision and urban economies in

LDC cities
 Share of World Population Growth Urban and Rural Areas LDCs and MDCs 1950 to 2025

• Over the next quarter century, increases in urbanization will be almost entirely attributable
to sub-Saharan Africa and Asia
 Urbanization & the population question
Thomas Malthus and Malthusianism

1766-1834

“I SAID that population, when unchecked, increased in a geometrical ratio, and subsistence for
man in an arithmetical ratio.”

Thomas Malthus. 1798. An Essay on the Principle of Population

Available at http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/
 Urbanization & the population question

Subsistence
Pop.

Time
 Urbanization & the population question
Thomas Malthus and Malthusianism

1766-1834

• Solution to unchecked population growth: inculcate ‘middle-class’ values in the ‘lower-

classes’
– Advocated universal sufferage, state-run education

• But his analysis of population growth has been used to naturalize the idea of
‘overpopulation’ as a purely mathematical problem ---> buries struggles for power (politics)
in apparently objective language of math.
 Urbanization & the population question

Source: Marshall, J. 2005

 Urbanization & the population question

Source: Marshall, J. 2005

 Urbanization & the population question

Source: Marshall, J. 2005

 Urbanization & the population question

Source: Marshall, J. 2005

Urbanization & the population question

www.pivotlegal.org/pivot/points/DownEast.htm
 Urbanization & the population question

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