Process of Urbanisation

Rural to urban migration
→ Rural-urban migration = movement of people from the countryside to the cities
● Rate of rural-urban migration depends on:
○ Push factors = things that encourage people to leave an area
○ Pull factors = things that encourage people to move into an area
■ Usually a combination of factors that causes people to migrate
● Rural-urban migration is the main driver of urbanisation
○ Most migrants are young
○ Migrate from the countryside to cities because of pull factors
■ eg/ jobs, education and a better quality of life

Push factors:
● Natural disasters (eg/ floods, earthquakes)
○ Can damage property and farmland → people can’t afford to repair
● Extreme weather conditions (eg/ drought, flooding)
● Mechanisation of agricultural equipment → farms require fewer workers
○ Leads to a decrease in jobs/income
● Conflict and war → causes people to flee their homes
● Hard to find clean/not contaminated water → human waste is polluting water and causing health
problems
● Young adults leaving
○ Leave behind a greying population
○ Shortage of workers
○ Shortage of food
● Poorly paid work → encourages people to leave the rural area and get a better job in the city
● High crime
● Political and religious persecution
● Extreme poverty

Pull factors:
● More jobs with a better pay → making a steady monthly income
● Access to better healthcare/services and education
● Better quality of life
● More opportunities
● Lower risk from natural hazards, crime and political unrest
○ Promise of freedom (religious and political stability)
● More fertile land
Effect of urbanisation on rural areas:
1. Large population decrease → young adults migrating and leaving a greying population
○ Natural decrease (higher death rate than birth rate)
2. Less workers → food shortages
○ Makes it difficult for the elderly to work manually
3. Child labor → school children are pulled out in order to work and make money
○ Schools shut down due to decrease in students
4. Less education → lower literacy rates
5. More poverty
○ Young people aren’t there to make money
○ Children don’t have proper education to make money
6. Makes life for those living in rural areas very difficult → eventually, whole population collapses
Factors affecting rate of urbanisation:
● Natural increase (when the birth rate is higher than the death rate → leads to population increase )
○ Urbanisation is also caused by natural increase
■ Young people move into the cities to find work
■ They have children in the cities → increases proportion of population living in urban areas
■ Better healthcare in urban areas allow people to live longer
● Location
○ Historically, cities have been built on rivers/coasts
○ Many of the largest megacities are ports → good for trade
■ Increases the economic development of the city → more pull factors for urbanisation
● Economic development
○ Cities that trade are a good place for business → they can grow economically
○ This allows for more jobs to be created → attracts more people to work there

These people bring bright ideas/enterprise which the cities builds on