Urbanisation is the increase in the number of people living in urban areas or cities. The graph below shows this rapid increase in the proportion of people living in towns and cities.

What is the meaning of the term urban area?
What is the meaning of the term rural area?
How many people lived in rural areas in 1950?
How many people lived in urban areas in 1980?
What was the increase in the urban population between 1950 and 2020?

Urbanisation first occurred in developed countries in the 19th century during the Industrial Revolution. People moved from the countryside to work in the factories such as mines and shipyards which were located in towns. Farmers were also pushed to leave their fields as developments led to mechanisation on farms. However nowadays the rate of urbanisation is greater in developing countries of Asia, Africa and South America. In such countries more and more people are migrating to urban areas to avoid the difficult conditions in the countryside.

Nowadays, the rate of urbanisation in developing countries (LEDCs) is greater than in developed countries (MEDCs). As LEDCs are developing more and more people are migrating to urban areas.

Look at the map below. It shows the world’s largest cities and the proportion of people living in rural areas in each continent. It shows that the developed countries of Western Europe and North America have a very high percentage of people living in urban areas. Countries in South America which are developing rapidly already have 80% of the population living in cities. The countries of Africa and South East Asia have the lowest proportion of people living in cities.

Cities across the world are continuously growing attracting more and more people like a magnet. This resulted in a number of cities exceeding a million people. However as the map above shows that are some super cities whose population exceeds 10 million people. These are known as megacities. In 1975 there were only four megacities – New York, Tokyo, Mexico City and São Paolo. Today, there are over twenty. By 2014 less developed regions hosted the majority of the world’s megacities.

Watch this short video clip which describes the growth of megacities over the years.

Use the map above to:
• name four megacities in the developed countries.
• name six megacities in the developing countries.
Briefly describe the global distribution of megacities.

The video below shows how urbanisation is nowadays more rapid in developing countries and that the world’s population centres are shifting rapidly. It shows how cities in Africa like Lagos, Kinshasa and Dar es Salaam are growing fast creating very large cities causing problems to the residents, city authorities and for newcomers.

Say if the following statements are true or false.
Write the correct sentences in the space provided below. Arrange also the false statements to make them correct.

1. Urbanisation is the process by which people are choosing to live in villages.
2. Half of the world’s population live in cities.
3. North America has the highest proportion of people living in cities.
4. Urbanisation started in the developed countries during the French Revolution of the 19th century.
5. During this Revolution people moved from the countryside to work in factories and mines.
6. A super city or a mega city has a population that exceeds 20 million people.
7. At the moment there are 6 mega cities in Europe.
8. Tokyo in Japan is the largest megacity in the world.
9. Africa has the lowest proportion of people living in cities.
10. The largest number of megacities is found in South America.

Use Google Earth to locate and mark the following megacities on the outline map of the world provided in the resources section.
New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, São Paolo, Buenos Aires, Lagos, Tianjin, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Osaka-Kobe, Jakarta, Mumbai, Calcutta, Karachi.