Geography GCSE

Urbanisation is the growth in proportion of a countrys population living in urban areas. It's happening all over the world-more than 50% of the worlds population live in urban areas, and this is increasing everyday. Most urbanisation that's happening in the world today is going on in LEDC's and it's happening at a fast pace.

Urbanisation is caused by rural-urban migration-people moving from the countryside to the cities. The reasons people want to LEAVE the countryside are call PUSH factors. These include:

• Few jobs and low wages-mechanism of farming is leading to loss of jobs in rural areas.
• Lack of services-there's often no acces to services or poor services
• Poor harvests-they grow food to feed their family and to sell for money

The reasons people want to move to urban areas are called PULL factors:

• More jobs and higher wages-there are more jobs available in  cities and they pay more. Also, the job offers a more stable income compared to jobs like farming.
• Better services-more shops, hospitals, schools, and more access to clean water and electricity.

It's normally young people who move to cities to find work. These people have children in the cities, which increases the proportion of the population living in urban areas. Also, better healthcare in urban areas means people live longer, again increasing the proportion of people in urban areas.

The problems of urbanisation:

• Overcrowding--too many people leads to a shortage of houses and jobs.
• Increased traffic, pollution and waste.

In LEDC's, overcrowing leads to squatter settlements.

• Badly built, illegal settlements found in and around the city.
• They're overcrowded, so disease spreads quickly.
• There are no drains, so flooding is common.
• They don't often have basic services such as electricity, water and sewers.

• An increasingly elderly population--young people move away, leaving older people behind. They may struggle with tasks like shopping or getting about.
• Even fewer services--less demand due to the falling population means some shops and services close. Also, fewer taxes are collected.