Culture Regions
Culture Regions
urbanized population The proportion of a country’s population living in cities.
How are urban areas and urban populations spatially arranged? All of you know from your own travels locally, nationally, or internationally that some regions contain many cities while others contain relatively few and that the size of those cities can vary greatly. How can we begin to understand the location, distribution, and size of cities? We start with a consideration of global patterns of urbanization, examining the general distribution of urban populations around the world. A quick look at Figure 10.1 reveals differing patterns of urbanized population—the percentage of a nation’s population living in towns and cities—around the world. For example, countries in Western Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean have relatively high levels of urbanization, with more than 75 percent of each country’s population living in urban areas. Most of the nations of Africa and Asia, in contrast, are less urbanized, with 25 percent to 75 percent of each country’s population residing in urban areas. How do geographers explain these varying regional patterns of urbanization?
Urbanized Population
Thinking Geographically
Question 10.1
JJJVi7Gm0AXXZiTsKRB9x0xqD5T9e7xqoDVFr4N/p8UEQRvFpGgLEjM5UeCz20fZyJLNbXO7ewLDCiL4zbq5eIvl202RoeIaPatterns and Processes of Urbanization
Patterns and Processes of Urbanization
According to United Nations estimates, almost all the worldwide population growth in the next 30 years will be concentrated in urban areas, with the cities of the less developed regions responsible for most of that increase. The reasons for this explosion in urban population growth and its uneven distribution around the world vary, as each country’s unique history and society present a slightly different narrative of urban and economic development. Making matters more complex is the lack of a standard definition of what constitutes a city. Consequently, the criteria used to calculate a country’s urban population differ from nation to nation. Using data based on these varying criteria would result in misleading conclusions. For example, in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, a city is a densely populated area of 2,500 people or more, and cities of 50,000 or more people constitute metropolitan statistical areas. In many European countries, the city designation is granted by government charter and is not based on any particular population criterion. Meanwhile, in India, only urban places of more than 100,000 residents are considered cities. It is important to remember, then, that an international comparison of urban population data can be made only by taking into account the varying definitions of a city.
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Nonetheless, several generalizations can be made about the differences in the world’s urbanized population. First, there is a close link between urbanized population and the more developed world. Put differently, highly industrialized countries have higher rates of urbanized population than do less developed countries. The second generalization, closely tied to the first, is that developing countries are urbanizing rapidly and that their ratio of urban to rural population is increasing dramatically (Figure 10.2).
Thinking Geographically
Question 10.2
tYcn2unjWvE1BkAz0cFmmGkrT4jBT7xeDnTyTldVTZ0U5JfuFYsflZhpzmWtWRp/6A/nxsTLJihE8Xy2iPqhhADD9C3rGWMgCZgPddN23rZevTxkF1BI9hFiOhkyPRWDjegUCUNDqRhpXSsO7GKuLvAbAzzDrO5hUrban growth in these countries comes from two sources: the migration of people to the cities (see also the section “Origin and Diffusion of the City”) and the higher natural population growth rates of these recent migrants. People move to the cities for a variety of reasons, most of which relate to the effects of uneven economic development in their country. Cities are often the centers of economic growth, whereas opportunities for land ownership and/or farming-based jobs are, in many countries, rare. Because urban employment is unreliable, many migrants continue to have large numbers of children to construct a more extensive family support system. Having a larger family increases the chances of someone’s getting work. The demographic transition to smaller families comes later, when a certain degree of security is ensured. Often, this transition occurs as women enter the workforce.
Impacts of Urbanization
Impacts of Urbanization
megacity A particularly large urban center, with a population over 10 million.
Although rural-to-urban migration affects nearly all cities in the developing world, the most visible cases are the extraordinarily large settlements we call megacities, those having populations of 10 million or more. Table 10.1 shows the world’s 20 most populous cities, over half of which are in the developing world. This is a major change from 30 years ago, when the list would have been dominated by Western industrialized cities, a trend that most expect to continue. Projections for future growth, however, must be qualified by two considerations. First, cities of the developing world will continue to explode in size only if economic development expands. If it stagnates because of political or resource problems, city growth will probably slow (although urban migration might increase if rural economies deteriorate). For example, Mexico City’s growth is linked to that country’s economic growth and more specifically to Mexico’s oil industry, which fluctuates according to the world market for oil. Second, because these megacities are plagued by transportation, housing, employment, and ecological problems—such as an inadequate water supply, in the case of Mexico City—some countries are trying to control urban migration. The success or failure of these policies will influence city size in the next 10 to 20 years.
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Table 10.1:
The World’s 20 Largest Metropolitan Areas
| Rank | Name | Country | Total Population (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tokyo | Japan | 34.5 |
| 2 | Guangzhou | China | 25.8 |
| 3 | Jakarta | Indonesia | 25.3 |
| 4 | Seoul | South Korea | 25.3 |
| 5 | Shanghai | China | 25.3 |
| 6 | Mexico City | Mexico | 25.2 |
| 7 | Delhi | India | 23.0 |
| 8 | New York City | United States | 21.5 |
| 9 | São Paulo | Brazil | 21.1 |
| 10 | Mumbai | India | 20.8 |
| 11 | Manila | Philippines | 20.7 |
| 12 | Karachi | Pakistan | 17.4 |
| 13 | Los Angeles | United States | 17.0 |
| 14 | Osaka | Japan | 16.8 |
| 15 | Beijing | China | 16.4 |
| 16 | Moscow | Russia | 16.2 |
| 17 | Cairo | Egypt | 15.7 |
| 18 | Calcutta | India | 15.7 |
| 19 | Buenos Aires | Argentina | 14.3 |
| 20 | Dacca | Bangladesh | 14.0 |
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(Source: http://citypopulation.de/world/Agglomerations.html, April 1, 2012.) |
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Nevertheless, the urban population in the developing world is growing at astounding rates. Even though the developed regions of the world are more urbanized overall than the less developed regions, the sheer scale and rate of growth in absolute numbers reveal a reversal in this pattern. According to geographer David Drakakis-Smith, there are now twice as many urban dwellers in the developing world as there are in developed countries. For example, the population of urbanites in the countries of Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean (according to the United Nations, 1.2 billion) is smaller than the population of urbanites in Asia (1.5 billion). With this incredible increase in sheer numbers of urban dwellers in the less developed regions of the world comes a large list of problems. Unemployment rates in cities of the developing world are often over 50 percent for newcomers to the city; housing and infrastructure often cannot be built fast enough to keep pace with growth rates; water and sewage systems can rarely handle the influx of new people.
These shortcomings often result in the spread of disease, increased urban flooding, and an increase in preventable deaths. In other words, the rapid economic growth occurring in many cities of the developing world, although bringing much-needed revenue, can occur at the expense of environmental quality and quality of human life. Additionally, the benefits of this economic growth are often spread unevenly throughout the population, with large numbers of newcomers to cities being forced to reside in slums plagued by a wide variety of health and social hazards. In contrast, in cities of the developed world, environmental problems tend to be related more to overconsumption of resources than to rapid population growth. Urban dwellers in the United States, for example, consume up to 32 times the amount of water and electricity and generate eight times more garbage than do residents of cities in developing countries such as Kenya or India. The massive demand for energy in cities of the developed world contributes significantly to the emission of greenhouse gases. In short: In both the developing world and the developed world, the restructuring of Earth’s population and cultures from rural to increasingly urban will provide ongoing challenges.
primate city A city of large size and dominant power within a country.
The target for much urban migration is the primate city. This is a settlement that dominates the economic, political, and cultural life of a country and as a result of rapid growth expands its primacy or dominance. Buenos Aires is an excellent example of a primate city because it far exceeds Rosario, the second-largest city in Argentina, in size and importance. Although many developing countries are dominated by a primate city, often a former center of colonial power, urban primacy is not unique to these countries: think of the way London and Paris dominate their respective countries.