Urbanisation = growth in the proportion of a country’s population living in urban areas
● Rapid urbanisation → feature in many LICs and NEEs
● Takes place in countries all over the world
● 50%+ of the world’s population currently live in urban areas (3.9 billion people) → this is increasing daily
● Rate of urbanisation differs between richer/poorer countries
High income countries:
● HICs = more economically developed
○ eg/ UK, Japan, Germany
● Urbanisation happened earlier in HICs than in LICs and NEEs
○ eg/ during the Industrial Revolution
● Most of the population now already live in urban areas
● They have very slow rates of urban growth
● People who are desiring a better quality of life are moving away from overcrowded cities to rural areas
● Good transport and communication network
○ Allows people to live in rural areas and still commute to cities/work from home
Low income countries:
● LICs = less economically developed
○ eg/ Ethiopia, Nepal, Afghanistan
● Not much of the population in LICs currently
live in urban areas
● The fastest rates of urbanisation in the world,
take place in LICs
Newly emerging economies:
● NEEs = economic development is increasing
rapidly
○ eg/ Brazil, Russia, India, China
● The percentage of the population living in
urban areas varies
● Some NEEs , such as Thailand, Nigeria and
China are experiencing rapid urban growth
Megacities:
→ Megacity = a city with a population of over 10 million people
● High rates of urbanisation leads to the growth of megacities
○ 34 megacities in the world at the moment
○ More than ⅔ are LICs and NEEs
○ More new megacities are expected to emerge in Asia and Africa by 2030
