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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

The United States,


The World
And Europe
At Night

Urban and Rural Population,


Less Developed Countries
1950 to 2025

Urbanization

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

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

~4X

~3X

2X

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
Vienna, Austria
Vancouver, B.C.
Shenzhen, China

2000 years
400 years
115 years
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/

Pop.

Subsistence

Urbanization & the population question

Time

Urbanization & the population question

Thomas Malthus and Malthusianism

1766-1834

Solution to unchecked population growth: inculcate middle-class values in the lowerclasses

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

http://faculty.law.ubc.ca/Pue/grlawsocspring03/Image7.gif

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