Urbanisation is one of the most defining global processes of the 21st century. However, this process is not happening at the same speed or in the same way everywhere. In this topic, we will explore how urban areas grow, why some regions are urbanising faster than others, and how these global patterns compare to the specific urban layout of the UK.

What you'll learn

• The contrasting trends and rates of urbanisation in developed, emerging, and developing countries over the last 50 years.
• The physical and human factors driving global urbanisation, alongside its main environmental and socio-economic effects.
• The uneven distribution of the UK's urban population and the reasons why different UK regions are growing at different speeds.

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Global Urbanisation: Different Paths, Different Speeds

Before looking at the trends, we need to understand exactly what we are measuring.

It is vital to distinguish between urbanisation (a percentage change) and urban growth (the physical expansion of a city's footprint or the absolute increase in the number of people living there).

Over the past 50 years, the world has shifted from being predominantly rural to predominantly urban. In 1970, just over $36\%$ of the global population lived in cities; by 2020, that figure exceeded $56\%$, and it is projected to reach nearly $70\%$ by 2050.

However, this global average hides massive differences between developed, emerging, and developing nations.

1. Developed Countries (HICs)

• The Pattern: High level of urbanisation (typically $75\%$ to $85\%$), but a very slow or stagnant rate of growth.
• The Reason: These countries (such as the UK, Japan, and the USA) underwent their primary urbanisation phase during the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, most people already live in cities.
• Current Trend: Many developed cities are experiencing suburbanisation (movement to the suburbs) or counter-urbanisation (people moving away from cities to rural areas, facilitated by high-speed internet and transport links).

2. Emerging Countries (NEEs)

• The Pattern: Rapid, steep increases in both the rate and percentage of urbanisation over the last 50 years.
• The Reason: Countries like China, India, and Brazil have experienced massive economic development, industrialisation, and investment.
• The Scale: In 1978, only about $18\%$ of China's population lived in cities. Following rapid economic reforms, that figure is now over $60\%$, representing hundreds of millions of people moving to urban centers in just a few decades.

3. Developing Countries (LICs)

• The Pattern: Low overall level of urbanisation (often under $40\%$), but the fastest rate of urban growth in the world.
• The Reason: Countries like Ethiopia, Nepal, and Malawi are still largely agrarian (farming-based) societies. However, extreme push factors from rural areas and high rates of natural increase are causing cities to swell rapidly.

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Why Urbanisation Occurs: The Drivers

Urbanisation is driven by two main mechanisms: rural-to-urban migration and natural increase.

Rural-to-Urban Migration

This is the movement of people from the countryside to cities. It is driven by a combination of "push" factors (things that force people to leave the countryside) and "pull" factors (things that attract people to the city).

• Push Factors:
  • Low crop yields due to climate change, drought, or soil erosion.
  • Agricultural mechanisation (machinery replacing manual jobs).
  • Extreme poverty and lack of basic services (schools, clinics).
• Pull Factors:
  • The perception of well-paid employment and job opportunities in factories or services.
  • Better access to healthcare and secondary/tertiary education.
  • A wider range of entertainment and "bright lights" of the city.

Natural Increase

Once migrants arrive in cities, they are typically young adults (aged 18–35) looking for work. This age demographic means they are likely to have children.

As a result, birth rates in cities rise rapidly while death rates fall due to better access to medical care. This gap between birth and death rates is called natural increase, and it accounts for over half of the urban population growth in many developing and emerging cities.

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Calculations in Urban Geography: Rate of Change

In the GCSE exam, you may be asked to interpret demographic data and calculate the percentage rate of change for a population over a given period. Let’s walk through how to do this.

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Urban Patterns and Rates in the UK

The UK is an entirely different story. Our urban landscape is highly developed, but it is also highly uneven.

The UK's Population Distribution

If you look at a map of the UK's population density, you will see a clear core-periphery pattern. Most of the UK’s population is concentrated in flat, low-lying urban cores, while highland rural areas are sparsely populated.

• The Core (High Density): The major concentration of urban areas stretches in a belt from the South East (focused on London), up through the Midlands (Birmingham), to the North West (Manchester and Liverpool) and Yorkshire (Leeds and Sheffield). There is also a distinct urban core in the Central Belt of Scotland (Glasgow and Edinburgh).
• The Periphery (Low Density): Areas like northern Scotland (the Highlands), central Wales, and parts of the South West (Cornwall) have very low population densities.

Factors Affecting UK Regional Variation

Why is the UK's urban population distributed this way? The differences in rate and degree of urbanisation across regions are caused by a mix of physical and human factors:

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