Causes of Urbanisation (OCR GCSE Geography B) : Revision Note

Jacque Cartwright

Written by: Jacque Cartwright

Reviewed by: Bridgette Barrett

Updated on

Causes of Urbanisation

  • People have always lived in cities and towns in order to trade goods and services

  • Towns and cities are essential to the development of a country's economy

  • They are centres of opportunities, entertainment, education, religion, culture, political administration, industry and more

  • The modern growth of cities began with the Industrial Revolution in Britain during the 19th century with the 'pull' of work to factories in growing cities from the 'push' of a harsh, rural existence 

  • Subsequently, urban living became linked to better literacy rates and education, improved health, and a longer life expectancy through wider access to health and social services

  • Urban populations can enjoy cultural entertainment and experiences, along with opportunities to participate in political debates and policies

  • During the 1960s, approximately 34% of the global population was living in some form of urban settlement

  • Today, 55% of the world's population lives in urban areas and by 2050 is expected to stand at 68%

  • The main factors affecting the rate of urbanisation are:

    • Speed of economic development

      • Economic growth drives urbanisation

      • The faster the growth of secondary and tertiary employment sectors, the faster the growth of urbanisation

    • Rate of population growth

      • Economic growth needs a supply of labour

      • This demand can be met in two ways:

        • Natural increase in an urban population: A slow way of meeting demand

        • Rural-urban migration: This is the more important source of labour as it attracts a wider pool of people into the urban region

    • Counter urbanisation

      • Where people move from an urban area into the surrounding rural region

    • Natural increase

      • Accounts for roughly 60% of urban population growth

      • Due to decreased death rates and higher birth rates

Examiner Tips and Tricks

Natural increase does not include inward migration of people to a place, just the number of births vs number of deaths. E.g. In one street there were 5 new migrants, 10 births and 2 deaths. The natural increase is 8 people because the migrants chose to move there. If they then had children, then those children would be included in the natural increase rate. 

Growth in LIDCs

  • Urbanisation usually occurs because people move from rural to urban areas as a country develops

  • Since the 1950s, EDCs and LIDCs have seen rapid growth in urbanisation, particularly in South America, Asia and Africa

  • Between the 1950s and 2000, urban population living in EDCs have doubled and LIDCs by 2021, ACs saw growth slow by less than half

  • There are three main reasons for urbanisation in EDCs and LIDCs:

    • Mass rural-urban migration due to population growth and lack of resources in rural areas (push factors)

    • The lure of the city and the opportunities it represents (pull factors), although many find informal employment and poor housing (push factors)

    • Natural increase - as development occurs, health care improves; this reduces infant mortality and death rates, although birth rates tend to remain high

  • Reasons for the rapid growth in rates of urbanisation in EDCs and LIDCs include:

    • Most new economic development is concentrated within the big cities

    • Push-pull factors lead to high rates of rural-to-urban migration

    • Cities are experiencing higher levels of natural increase in population

    • The decline of industry in ACs

      • As industry moved overseas to emerging developing countries (EDCs) and low-income developing countries (LIDCs) to take advantage of a cheaper workforce, government incentives, tax breaks, etc.

      • This led to industrial growth in emerging countries and 'pulled' people from rural regions to urban areas, with the hope of a better life and employment

Push-pull factors

  • There are many reasons for people to migrate to and from urban areas. These can be generally classified into push and pull factors

  • The push factor is the reality of the current situation for the migrant; it is what makes the person consider moving from the place of origin

  • The pull factor is the perceived outcome; it is what the migrant imagines the move will bring to the place of destination

  • Push-pull factors are unique to each person depending on their end goal: What is a pull factor for one person may not be for another

  • These factors can be further divided into:

    • Social

    • Economic

    • Political

    • Environmental

  • High levels of unemployment are a push factor, whereas higher wages and a better lifestyle are a pull factor

  • Therefore, rural-urban migration is usually a combination of factors that cause people to migrate

Examples of push-pull factors leading to migration

Examples of push and pull factors that can lead to migration from rural to urban areas within a country

Examiner Tips and Tricks

  • Remember do not just state the opposite when asked to give push-pull factors

  • Poverty is a push factor, however, everywhere has certain levels of poverty, so a pull factor could be better welfare and healthcare services

Consequences of Rapid Growth in LIDCs

  • A major challenge faced by LIDCs and EDCs is the growth of squatter settlements, particularly in megacities

  • The availability and affordability of housing cannot keep up with the rate at which the urban population is increasing in EDCs and LIDCs

  • This leads to people building their own homes on any vacant land using scrap materials like cardboard, corrugated iron and plastic

  • These are unplanned and unregulated housing (informal settlements or slums) with little sanitary facilities, freshwater or reliable energy supply

  • They are usually built on land not owned by them, and they are found:

    • In areas of no economic value

    • On the urban edges or fringes

    • Along main roads or railways

    • Clinging onto the side of steep slopes

  • Depending on the country, these informal settlements are also called:

    • Favelas in Brazil

    • Shanty towns in the West Indies and Canada

    • Bustees on the Indian subcontinent

    • Skid row in the USA

    • Townships in South Africa

  • The UN estimates that about a quarter of urban inhabitants (1.6 billion) live in these impoverished slums and squatter settlements and that by 2030, 1 in 4 people on the planet will live in some form of informal settlement

  • Some cities have 'mega-slums', which are very large, overcrowded areas usually within megacities

    • The largest are found:

      • Nairobi, Kenya, with a population of 1.5 million, is crowded into three sprawling slums of mud huts and tin shacks - Kibera being the largest of the three

      • Neza, Mexico City, Mexico, has a population of 1.1 million people 

      • Dharavi, Mumbai, India, has 1 million people in a warren of narrow lanes, interconnected shacks and single-room living spaces that double as factories

      • Orangi Town, Karachi, Pakistan, has an estimated population of 2.4 million people across 8000 acres of concrete block homes, with 8–10 people sharing two or three rooms

      • Khayelitsha in Cape Town, South Africa, has a population of 400,000 in iron and wooden shacks

  • These slums present serious risks such as fire, flooding and landslides

  • Slum areas typically suffer from:

    • Poor, overcrowded, small housing, built very close together using inadequate material and with uncertain electricity supplies

    • They have restricted access to water supplies

    • There are little to no sanitation facilities and no solid waste disposal, which leads to a polluted and degraded local environment

    • There are inadequate health facilities, which, along with poor living conditions, increase sickness and death rates

    • Slum dwellers have insecure living conditions as they may be forcibly removed by landowners or other authorities

  • Other challenges are:

    • Dealing with the amount of waste produced as the city grows

    • Air pollution from burning fossil fuels, factories and car exhausts

    • Sewage and toxic chemical pollution of waterways

    • Congestion on poorly managed or planned road systems

    • Lack of public transport

    • Lack of qualified doctors, teachers, etc. 

    • High levels of unemployment and crime

    • Informal employment and child exploitation

  • The speed of development is greatest in EDCs and LIDCs

    • Sao Paulo in Brazil, which grew from 7 million people to over 20 million in 40 years, is now the second-largest urban area in the Americas 

    • Dharavi in Mumbai, India, has a slum settlement of over 1 million people in a 2 km2 area 

  • The differences between ACs, EDCs and LIDCs can be shown as a pathway over time 

  • Countries become more urban as they develop economically

  • As they move through the stages, the pace begins to slow and begins to flatten out or decline as counter urbanisation gains speed

Urbanisation pathway

Image showing the urbanisation pathway as a country develops economically. Growth is rapid and then begins to slow and eventually growth will either flatten or decline
  • During the 20th century, the UK underwent a process of suburbanisation, where people move outwards from urban centres to the suburbs

Timeline illustrating urban development stages: agglomeration, suburbanisation, commuting, counter-urbanisation, urban regeneration, and urban re-imagining.
Urban process timeline
  • Urban settlements first appear as a result of agglomeration:

    • People gather together in one area to sell goods and live

    • Small trading posts and villages begin to develop

  • As towns grow, they expand outwards by a process known as suburbanisation:

    • This adds to the built-up area, but the building densities are generally lower than in the older parts of the town

    • The new suburbs are made up of mostly houses but also include places of employment and services

  • Urban settlements continue to prosper and grow, people move out of the town or city altogether and commute to work:

    • These are called dormitory settlements because many residents only sleep there. 

    • They continue to have links with the town or city they have left

    • They still make use of urban services, shops, education, and healthcare

Urban sprawl 

  • Urban growth if left unchecked leads to urban sprawl, and many UK cities were soon becoming too large and concerns grew 

  • Urban sprawl creates issues such as:

    • Loss of farmland to build new homes

    • Loss of traditional 'green spaces' - school fields, parks etc are being built on

    • Impact on ecosystems - natural and built (removal of trees increases pollution levels etc.)

    • Creates impermeable surfaces and surface run-off

  • By 1947, the UK government introduced 'green belts' in order to limit outward urban growth

  • Most of these changes have been at the urban fringes due to:

    • Availability of space for housing, retail and manufacturing - including options for expansion

    • Cost of land is cheaper to develop 

    • Better access to main arterial routes for private and heavy transport

    • Many services are now located at the urban fringe - major hospitals, superstores, specialist manufacturing etc.

Counter-urbanisation 

  • This is the movement of people from an urban area into the surrounding rural region

  • Causes include:

    • Mobility and accessibility - higher personal car ownership, increase in public transport and road development making easier access to rural areas

    • Increased wealth - making housing and travel more affordable

    • Agricultural decline (mechanisation and merger of farms) creates the availability of more land for housing, forcing agricultural workers leave the area

    • Green belt - people need to go further out to get the rural life they are looking for

    • Second homes and early retirement - have increased the movement of people from the city to the countryside

Re-urbanisation

  • The movement of people back into the cities from the surrounding area

  • Movement is the result of a number of factors:

    • Increase in jobs

    • Regeneration of older areas either through rebuilding or redevelopment (factories into spacious apartments)

    • Improvements in air quality 

    • Improvements in safety

Deindustrialisation

  • The closure of factories and industries leads to large areas of derelict land and buildings

  • This leads in to suburbanisation and counter-urbanisation as lack of jobs and poor quality environment causes people to leave the city

  • More recently this has led to re-urbanisation as the areas are cleared or redeveloped to be replaced by luxury apartments

Urban regeneration and re-imagining

  • Urban regeneration and urban re-imaging are different

  • Urban regeneration is the investment of capital in the revival of old, urban areas by either improving what is there or clearing it away and rebuilding

    • Over time, older parts of urban areas would begin to suffer a decline

    • Factories would move elsewhere, resulting in job loss

    • Quality of life and housing become poorer, people moved away

    • Urban blight sets in

    • The area needs to be 'brought back to life' = urban regeneration

  • Urban re-imaging is changing the image and reputation of an urban area and the way people view it

    • Focusing on a new identity/function

    • Changing the quality and appearance of the built-up area

    • Good opportunity for brownfield site development

    • London Docklands was completely redeveloped and regenerated

    • London Docklands had new industries, more executive services, homes, entertainment, and leisure, making it the new 'cool' place to be

  • Together urban regeneration and urban re-imaging = rebranding

  • These processes add to the continued growth of urban regions

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Jacque Cartwright

Author: Jacque Cartwright

Expertise: Geography Content Creator

Jacque graduated from the Open University with a BSc in Environmental Science and Geography before doing her PGCE with the University of St David’s, Swansea. Teaching is her passion and has taught across a wide range of specifications – GCSE/IGCSE and IB but particularly loves teaching the A-level Geography. For the past 5 years Jacque has been teaching online for international schools, and she knows what is needed to get the top scores on those pesky geography exams.

Bridgette Barrett

Reviewer: Bridgette Barrett

Expertise: Geography Lead

After graduating with a degree in Geography, Bridgette completed a PGCE over 25 years ago. She later gained an MA Learning, Technology and Education from the University of Nottingham focussing on online learning. At a time when the study of geography has never been more important, Bridgette is passionate about creating content which supports students in achieving their potential in geography and builds their confidence.

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