Urbanisation Trends
The world is moving to the city. Plot the rising urban trend, sort the push and pull factors, and weigh the challenges of rapid urban growth.
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Free interactive practice at using the material, which is what the marks are for.
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The world moves to the city
For the first time in history, more than half the world lives in towns and cities. This shift is called urbanisation, and it is happening fastest in poorer countries. Why do people move, and what challenges does rapid growth bring?
Key terms
Learn these before you read the trend:
Plot the rise
The percentage of people living in cities has risen steadily over recent decades. One point is plotted for you. Plot three more to show the rising trend.
Read your graph
Your graph shows that the percentage of people living in cities is...
- Rising over time
- Falling over time
- Staying exactly the same
- Changing randomly
Push and pull
People move to cities through rural-urban migration, driven by two kinds of factor. Push factors drive people away from the countryside: few jobs, poverty, poor services. Pull factors attract them to the city: jobs, schools, hospitals, a better life.
Push against pull
- Push factor
- Pull factor
- Natural increase
- Megacity
- Something driving people away from the countryside
- Something attracting people to the city
- Growth from more births than deaths
- A city of over 10 million people
Pull factors
Select the TWO pull factors that attract people to cities.
- More jobs
- Better schools and hospitals
- Drought and poor harvests
- Few services in the village
The strain of fast growth
Rapid urban growth brings challenges: - Squatter settlements (slums) with poor housing; - unemployment and the informal economy; - congestion and air pollution; - pressure on water, power and waste services.
Match each challenge to its description
- Squatter settlement
- Informal economy
- Congestion
- Pollution
- Poor, informal housing built by residents
- Unofficial jobs with no security
- Too much traffic on the roads
- Dirty air and water in the city
Urbanisation frame
_____ is the rising share of people living in cities. It is driven by rural-urban _____ and natural increase. A city of over 10 million people is a _____. Rapid growth can create _____ settlements with poor housing.
Push, pull or place?
Work through the reasons people move and where they end up.
- A farmer moves because there are no jobs in the village. "No jobs in the village" is a...
- The city offers better hospitals. This is a...
- A city of 15 million people is called a...
The jargon
What is a megacity?
- A city with over 10 million people
- A small market town
- Any city by the sea
- The capital city only
A challenge and a fix
Explain one challenge caused by rapid urban growth in a city, and suggest how it might be managed.
- Name a challenge (for example squatter settlements or congestion)
- Explain why it is a problem
- Suggest one way the city could manage it