Regions with a high level of urbanization over 50. Levels and rates of urbanization

LEVELS AND RATES OF URBANIZATION

Despite the presence of common features of urbanization as a global process in different countries and regions, it has its own characteristics, which, first of all, are expressed in different levels and rates of urbanization.

By level of urbanization all countries of the world can be subdivided into three large groups. But the main watershed passes nevertheless between more and less developed countries. In the late 90s. V developed countries the level of urbanization averaged 75%, and in developing countries - 41%.

highly urbanized countries	medium urbanized countries	poorly urbanized countries
The share of the urban population is more than 50%	Percentage of urban population 20-50%	Share of urban population less than 20%
Great Britain	Algeria	Chad
Venezuela	Bolivia;	Ethiopia
Kuwait	Nigeria	Somalia
Sweden	India	Niger
Australia	Zaire	Mali
Japan	Egypt	Zambia

The rate of urbanization largely depends on the level.

Most economically developed countries that have reached a high level of urbanization, the proportion of the urban population in recent growing relatively slowly , and the number of inhabitants in the capitals and other largest cities, as a rule, even decreases. Many city dwellers now prefer to live not in the centers of large cities, but in suburbs and rural areas. This is due to the rise in the cost of engineering equipment, dilapidated infrastructure, the extreme complication of transport problems, and environmental pollution. But urbanization continues to develop in depth, acquiring new forms.

IN developing countries, where the level of urbanization is much higher short , it continues to grow in breadth, and the urban population increases rapidly. Now they account for more than 4/5 of the total annual increase in the number of urban residents, and the absolute number of city dwellers has already far exceeded their number in economically developed countries. This phenomenon, which has received the name in science urban explosion, has become one of the most important factors in the entire socio-economic development of developing countries. However, the population growth of cities in these regions is far ahead of their real development. It occurs largely due to the constant "pushing" of the surplus rural population into the cities, especially large ones. At the same time, the poor usually settle on the outskirts of large cities, where there are belts of poverty, slums. Complete, as they sometimes say, slum urbanization "has taken on a very large size. She continues to be basically spontaneous and disordered. In economically developed countries, on the contrary, great efforts are being made to regulate the process of urbanization and manage it.

Let us note only some features of world urbanization on the threshold of the third millennium. Urbanization still continues at a rapid pace in various forms in countries of different levels of development, in different conditions of each country, both in breadth and depth, at one speed or another. The rate of annual growth of city dwellers is almost twice as high as the growth of the world's population as a whole. In 1950, 28% of the world's population lived in cities, in 1997 - 45%. Cities of different rank, significance and size with rapidly growing suburbs, agglomerations, and even more extensive urbanized zones practically cover the main part of humanity with their influence. The major role in this is played by big cities, especially the cities with millionaires. The last in 1950, there were 116, in 1996 there were already 230 of them. The urban lifestyle of the population, urban culture in the broadest sense of the word, is increasingly spreading in rural areas in most countries of the world. (urbanization) .

IN developing countries urbanization is on the rise "in breadth" as a result of a massive influx of migrants from rural areas and small towns to large cities.

For economically developed countries are now characterized by urbanization "into": intensive suburbanization, formation and spread of urban agglomerations and megacities. The concentration of the transportation industry worsened the economic conditions of life in the big cities. In many areas, the population is now growing faster in small towns, on the outskirts than in the centers of agglomerations. Often the largest cities, especially cities with millionaires, lose their population due to its migration to the suburbs, satellite cities, in some places to the countryside, where it brings an urban lifestyle.

The urban population of industrialized countries is now practically not growing.

The process of global migration of rural residents to cities is called urbanization. As a result, there is a rapid growth of cities, the formation of large metropolitan areas with a large number of inhabitants. At the same time, urbanization of life has both positive and negative features.

general characteristics

Urbanization is a socio-economic process, which is expressed in the growth of cities, an increase in the concentration of the population and the spread of the influence of the urban lifestyle to nearby settlements. The very definition of "urbanization" in Latin means "urban".

There are 2 types of urbanization:

Hyper-urbanization is noted in areas with uncontrolled development of urban settlements, which leads to an overload of natural landscapes and disruption of the ecological balance. characteristic of developed countries.

Rice. 1. Urbanization of developed countries.

False urbanization - the rapid growth of the urban population, in which the number of jobs is not enough for the incoming flows of people from the countryside. As a result, unimproved urban outskirts begin to grow, in which unsanitary conditions reign. typical for developing countries.

The level of urbanization of cities in Russia is characterized by a very rapid pace. Over the past 100 years, it has grown several times, and the ratio of rural and urban residents has reversed. The most attractive for residents of rural areas and small towns are the largest cities in Russia, among which Moscow occupies the palm.

The main reasons for urbanization at the present stage include:

the rapid development of industrialization in large cities;
favorable conditions for commerce;
large labor market;
social aspects: high level of medicine, education, comfortable living and recreation conditions;
the formation of wide suburban areas.

Rice. 2. Industrialization of cities.

Table “Main features of urbanization”

Pros and cons of urbanization

Urbanization arose as a result of active human activity, which has both positive and negative features.

What have we learned?

When studying the topic "Urbanization", we learned what urbanization is, got acquainted with its main features, pluses and minuses. We found out what influences this process and what problems arise as a result of high rates of urbanization.

Topic quiz

Report Evaluation

Average rating: 4.2. Total ratings received: 105.

Man is a being with social needs who always tries to surround himself with some kind of society. It is for this reason that most of the population of our world is moving more and more to the territory of cities.

But from another point of view, man is a being and biological. Man is considered an important part, as well as a special link in the arrangement and development of natural landscapes. On the other hand, populous cities and countries, as well as natural areas without industrial enterprises and increased emissions, remain today the main parties around which the entire process of development of modern society takes place.

What do such concepts as urbanization, suburbanization and deurbanization mean? What is the main meaning of these definitions?

The term urbanization of cities, what does it mean?

Word urbanization originated from the Latin word urbanus, which literally translates as urban. Under the term urbanization (in its broadest sense) is perceived the growing role of urban areas in the overall life of a person and the surrounding society. In a narrow sense, this word means urban population development process, as well as the resettlement of people from the territory of the village - to simple cities, as well as to cities with a population of over a million.

Urbanization as a socio-economic phenomenon and the process of developing the number of cities began to be mentioned in the middle of the 20th century, when the number of urban residents began to increase continuously. The main factor that contributed to this was the process of rapid development of industrial enterprises in urban areas, the emergence of a need for new specialists, as well as the development of science, culture and spirituality in the territory of large cities.

Scientists classify urbanization by several processes:

The science of georbunastics will help answer such questions as: what does urbanization, suburbanization, as well as deurbanization and ruralization mean. Geourbanistics is one of the main branches of modern geography.

The concept of urbanization is similar to such a term as false urbanization, which is described and presented in such areas of the planet as Latin America, as well as Southeast Asia. What does false urbanization include? This is mainly unsupported and unofficial urban population growth, while it is not accompanied by an increase in the number of jobs and specializations, as well as the development of infrastructure.

In the end, the population living in the countryside is simply forcibly transferred to the territory of developed cities. So, false urbanization, as a rule, is capable of bringing with it a special increase in the level of unemployment in a certain territory and the emergence of so-called houses in the territories of cities - slums, which cannot in any way correspond to the normal standard of human life, and are also simply unfavorable for living.

What rate of urbanization exists in other countries?

Thus, the UN Department of Social and Environmental Affairs every year compiles a new rating for urbanization in the countries of the world. Such studies and annual rechecking began in 1980.

Find level of urbanization it is not difficult - you just need to correlate the percentage of urban residents and the total number of people living in the territory of a particular region. The rate of urbanization is very different in each country. So, the highest level of urbanization(if you do not consider small countries that consist of only one town) have: Belgium, Malta, Qatar, Kuwait.

In these countries, the parameter of urbanization of the population reaches the level of 95%. With all this, the rate of urbanization is just as high in Argentina, Japan, Israel, Venezuela, Iceland, and Uruguay (more than 90 percent).

The level of urbanization of our country according to the UN is only 74%. Burundi, Papua New Guinea, is at the bottom of the rankings, with urbanization levels of just 12.6 and 11.5 percent.

On the territory of Europe, Moldova has the smallest indicator of urbanization - only 49 percent.

What does the urban agglomeration include?

is a term that goes along with the process of urbanization of the entire population of the world. This concept means the combination of city points located in the neighborhood into one large and functional system. Within such a system, strong and multifunctional ties arise and grow: transport, industrial, cultural, and also scientific. Urban agglomerations are one of the important urbanization processes.

This is interesting: about the concept and functions.

Scientists distinguish two main types of agglomerations:

Monocentric type (development based on one central city - the core)
Polycentric (a combination of several cities of an equivalent nature).

The urban agglomeration has its own characteristics and distinctive features:

According to the results of a UN study, there are less than 450 urban agglomerations on the territory of our planet, in each of which no less than one million people live freely. Tokyo is considered the largest agglomeration in the world, in which, according to compiled data, there are about 35 million people. The leading countries in which the largest number of urban-type agglomerations are located are: Brazil, Russia, the USA, China and India.

Urbanization in Russia: what large urban agglomerations exist in Russia?

It should be noted that no research and accounting of the number of urban agglomerations is conducted on the territory of Russia. Therefore, the actual figures may vary comparatively with each other.

Nevertheless, on the territory of our country is about 22 urban agglomerations. The largest of which are:

For urban agglomerations in Russia characterized by high industrialization of the regions, as well as a large level of developed infrastructure. We also have a large number of research facilities and top-level educational institutions. The main parts of the Russian agglomerations are considered monocentric, that is, they have one core - a pronounced center, from which the rest of the suburbs, as well as small settlements, diverge.

What does suburbanization entail?

Now it is worth talking about other terms that are actively used in urbanization. Suburbanization, this word came into use in the second half of the 20th century. suburbanization- this is one of the phenomena that is accompanied by a rapid and targeted development of suburban areas located near large metropolitan areas.

By the end of the last century, most of the population began to move to the outskirts of large cities, where there is not much noise and air pollutants, and there are also natural landscapes. At the same time, such people begin to actively use agricultural land and breed domestic animals. At the same time, they continue to work in the city and spend a large amount of their free time on the road. Of course, suburbanization began to develop actively only after mass motorization.

Urbanization is turning into suburbanization

Not so long ago, a fascinating article was published in one of the magazines, which was called "The Planet of the Suburbs." If you carefully read the text of the article, you can understand that suburbanization is nothing but urbanization in disguise. So, throughout the planet, megacities and small towns are increasing only due to the development of the territory of the suburbs. The only exceptions in the magazine are considered to be only two modern metropolitan areas - Tokyo and London.

Now we can see a very interesting picture. So, even 30–40 years ago, the outskirts of large cities became a place of residence for the poorer segments of the population, but today everything has changed dramatically. Now quarters with elite houses can be increasingly seen in the suburbs.

What does deurbanization mean?

In the end, it is worth noting another important concept. is a process that is fundamentally different from urbanization (translated from French, dez is a negation).

De-urbanization is characteristic of the process of resettlement of people outside of developed cities, that is, in rural areas. In a more profound sense, such a term carries a denial of the positive side of society in the city. The main principle of deurbanization is the elimination of all large cities around the world.

Causes of urbanization

The city did not immediately become recognized and did not immediately become the main area for human habitation. For a long time, urban areas were the exception rather than the rule due to the dominance of such forms of production, which were based on the individual labor of each person, as well as work on agricultural plots. So, during the days of slavery cities were considered closely related to landed property as well as agricultural labor.

In the era of feudal processes cities carried the features of their antipode - agriculture, it is for this reason that all cities were scattered over a large territory and did not communicate well with each other. The predominance of the countryside in the life of that society was mainly due to the fact that the function of production and industry was still undeveloped, which did not allow a person to break away from his territory financially.

Relations between urban areas and rural areas began to change after they began to actively develop factors of production. The main basis for this was the improvement of urban production by including manufactories in it, and then full-fledged factories. With the help of the rapid growth of production in the city, the number of the urban population also began to actively increase. The industrial revolution in Europe at the end of the 17th century and the 19th century radically changed the face of modern cities.

Urban conditions are becoming the most typical form of life for the population. It was at this time that a rapid build-up of the settlement environment developed, artificially obtained from a person in the process of his life.

These changes in production processes created a new historical stage in the processes of population settlement, characterized by an increase in urbanization, which meant a rapid increase in the proportion of the population of urban settlements, closely related to the processes of industrialization and the development of production. The fastest rates of urbanization were noted in the 19th century, since at that time there was an active migration of the population to the cities from the countryside.

Conclusion

Urbanization, suburbanization and deurbanization - all these concepts are interconnected with each other. So, if urbanization means only an increase in the role of cities in the daily life of society, then suburbanization is a radically opposite concept, the outflow of the population to rural areas of settlement.

SECTION 4. THE PRESENT STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN SETTLEMENT

20th century called the age of urbanization. Urban settlement during this period developed especially rapidly. Intensive processes of urbanization attracted increased attention of specialists from many branches of knowledge, as a result of which general patterns of development of urban settlement in different countries of the world were identified, theories of urbanization were created in various sciences - geography, economics, sociology, etc. The stage of accelerated development of urbanization processes took place in the 20th century . and our country. But before considering the global patterns of development of urbanization and their manifestation in Russia, let us dwell on the general picture of the urban settlement of the modern world.

World processes of urbanization in the XX century.

As noted above, urbanization is the strengthening of the importance of urban settlements in various spheres of society. To one degree or another, urbanization processes turn out to cover almost all areas of the life of modern society. In the most generalized form, this is manifested in the formation and ever wider distribution of the modern urban lifestyle, which in the future, apparently, will cover all of humanity. But a way of life is a qualitative characteristic that is difficult to formalize when comparing different territories, and strongly depends on many characteristics of the population and economy of specific societies (composition of the population, natural resource potential, etc.). Therefore, the development of urbanization processes is usually judged by several characteristics of the population, which narrow the meaning of this concept, but at the same time are relatively easily reflected in quantitative statistical indicators. The most widely used of these indicators are:

Number of urban settlements, including large and largest;

Urban population;

Proportion of the urban population, including the population living in large and major cities.

For the planet as a whole, the change in some of these indicators over the course of the 20th century. presented & tab. 4.1. It is clearly seen that during this century the number of city dwellers on Earth has grown more than 13 times, and their proportion has closely approached half of the inhabitants of the planet. At the same time, more and more large cities were formed. Including at present there are already more than 20 cities and urban agglomerations with a population of more than 10 million people. Whereas at the beginning of the century the largest cities were a few millionaires. It is in these largest urban settlements that a gradual concentration of urban residents occurs. And today, every fifth person on Earth lives not just in a city, but in a very large urban settlement with a population of more than 1 million people. In the short term, no slowdown in the growth rates of urbanization is expected.

Table 4.1 Changes in the main indicators of urbanization in the 20th century

All the indicators listed in the table characterize the degree of urbanization of society, reflecting certain important processes of urbanization - the growth in the number of urban settlements, including large settlements, the concentration of the population in ever larger urban formations, the increase in the number and proportion of the urban population. The most generalized is the last indicator, which characterizes the urban population not only in itself, but also in comparison with the rural population, i.e., reflects the importance of urban settlements in the entire structure of the settlement of a particular territory. Therefore, the indicator of the share of the urban population is also called the indicator of the level of urbanization (urbanization) and it is by it, first of all, that the development of urbanization processes in a particular territory or on the Earth as a whole is judged.

There are several threshold values for the level of urbanization.

1. If it is less than 10%, then the territory is practically unurbanized. And in urban settlements, as a rule, the rural way of life prevails, i.e., the differences between rural and urban settlements are relatively small. All of them are predominantly rural in nature. The number and proportion of city dwellers are growing very slowly.

2. If the level of urbanization is less than 25%, then rural settlement still clearly prevails (i.e., the territory is poorly urbanized), but the urban lifestyle is already distinguished, which becomes attractive to a significant proportion of rural residents. Therefore, the urban population begins to grow rapidly, new urban settlements are massively formed, and the differences between them and rural settlements increase.

3. When the level of urbanization reaches 50%, then urban settlement begins to prevail over rural (medium urbanized territory). The growth rates of the number and proportion of the urban population during this period are the highest. Urban settlements differ sharply from rural settlements in most characteristics.

4. Upon reaching the level of urbanization of 75%, urban settlement clearly begins to predominate over rural (highly urbanized territory). The urban way of life is beginning to spread in the countryside too - starting from the suburban areas of the largest cities, where new urban settlements are predominantly formed. At the same time, the rate of growth in the number and proportion of the urban population is sharply slowing down.

5. Upon reaching the level of urbanization III)%, the territory becomes almost completely urbanized. The urban way of life, as a rule, extends to the entire network of rural settlements, i.e., the differences between urban and rural settlements again practically disappear, since all settlements acquire an urban character. The number and proportion of city dwellers are growing very slowly, and in some cases even declining.

As socio-economic development progresses, individual states pass these threshold levels of urbanization, becoming more and more urbanized. But since at each specific point in time different territories differ significantly in terms of the level of socio-economic development, there is a strong differentiation in terms of the level and pace of urbanization. So, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium already at the beginning of the 20th century. were predominantly urbanized countries (more than 75% of the city dwellers), and the proportion of the urban population in them continued to grow. The share of city dwellers increased most rapidly in medium urbanized countries (USA, Germany, France - the share of city dwellers was about 50%). Whereas in most territories of the world at that time the urban population did not reach even 10%, and this proportion increased very slowly. The average level of urbanization on Earth was about 14%. And it could be noted that countries with a higher level of urbanization were also distinguished by faster growth rates of this level, i.e., differentiation increased.

At the beginning of the XXI century. differentiation in terms of the level and pace of urbanization is also great, but it has a different character. The most developed countries have 90% or more urban residents, and in them the level of urbanization is almost not growing or even declining. While most developing countries have from 10 to 75% of the city dwellers, and in them the level of urbanization is rapidly increasing. Therefore, it can be noted that in countries with a lower level of urbanization, it is growing faster than in countries with a high level. And as a result, differentiation in this indicator between individual states of the world is reduced.

Nevertheless, even now, differences in the share of the urban population are clearly visible even at the level of regions of the world (Table 4.2). The indicators of the level of urbanization in North and Latin America, foreign Europe, Australia and Oceania have converged. Although at the beginning of the 20th century the differences in the indicator between these regions exceeded "3 times, and in the middle of the century - 1.5 times. Particularly noteworthy is the growth in the level of urbanization in Latin America, which at the beginning of the century was below the world average, and at the end of the century significantly exceeds the world average. Below the world level, the share the urban population is currently only in Africa and overseas Asia.But it is growing here at the fastest pace, and most states can already be considered medium-urbanized (the share of the urban population is about 50%).Although there are still several practically unurbanized states, the largest in terms of number population of which is Uganda.

The main differentiating influence on the level of urbanization is, of course, socio-economic factors. In general, we can say that the higher the level of socio-economic development of a particular territory (country), the higher the proportion of the urban population. But in some cases, natural factors are also significant, namely, the unfavorability of natural conditions for agriculture and human life. If the socio-economic development of such territories did take place (due to the presence of minerals, favorable geographical location and for other reasons), then the population can be concentrated in urban settlements to a very high degree (over 90%), which does not reflect the real level of development territory. So, in the desert, but with a developed oil production state of Kuwait, the share of the urban population exceeds 90%. And the most urbanized African state is Djibouti, where there is a relatively large port-capital. A similar situation has developed in some northern and eastern regions of Russia (Murmansk, Magadan regions, etc.).

Table 4.2

The level of urbanization of the regions of the world

Throughout the 20th century the number of urban settlements has multiplied. The intensive process of the formation of new cities covered all regions of the world, except for foreign Europe (where the urban network had already been basically formed by the beginning of the 20th century). At the same time, urban settlements were massively formed in poorly urbanized areas - both by founding new cities "from scratch" and by transforming the largest rural settlements into cities, in which urban functions were developed, i.e., urbanization spread in breadth. But gradually an increasing proportion of urban settlements appeared in already highly urbanized areas, forming complex systems with existing cities. This form of settlement is called urban agglomerations.

The first urban agglomerations were formed in the second half of the 19th century. or around the largest cities (London, Paris, New York, etc.), or in areas close to the location of a large number of individual relatively small cities (the sea coast of the Netherlands, the Ruhr coal basin in Germany, etc.). Agglomerations of the first type are called monocentric (since they have one main center), and the second type - polycentric (they have several approximately equal centers). Monocentric agglomerations have become more widespread, although there are quite a lot of polycentric agglomerations in the modern world - mainly in mining areas with a basin type of occurrence.

By the end of the XX century. urban agglomerations have become the main form of settlement in the most urbanized regions of the world, almost completely replacing isolated cities (which have survived in relatively poorly urbanized areas, but concentrate only a small proportion of the urban population). Urban agglomerations are rapidly developing in medium and even poorly urbanized countries, but they are not numerous in them. Very often this is just one agglomeration, which is formed around the largest city of the country (capital or economic capital).

Thus, urban agglomerations are interconnected groups of settlements, primarily urban, united by labor, cultural, recreational, infrastructural, industrial and other ties. The most important are labor ties, which, within the framework of the daily cycle, through pendulum migrations of residents, connect individual settlements into a single whole?. At the same time, such commuting migrants work or study mainly in the main city (core) of the agglomeration, and live in other settlements. Cultural and recreational ties between settlements are carried out mainly within the framework of a weekly cycle, although in terms of mass they can exceed daily labor trips. Infrastructural ties are manifested in the joint use by settlements of the agglomeration of large transport facilities (railways, airports, etc.), urban facilities (water intakes, treatment facilities). Industrial relations are carried out between enterprises within the framework of cooperation, when branches, suppliers of components, product warehouses, and experimental testing grounds of an enterprise from one city of the agglomeration (as a rule, its main center) are located in other settlements of the agglomeration.

Scientists from different countries have different approaches to defining the boundaries of urban agglomerations. In foreign Europe, the outer boundary of the agglomeration in many cases is determined at the end of continuous urban development. In this sense, the agglomeration coincides with the actual city and is often called conurbation. Thus, the population of the Moscow agglomeration (conurbation) is estimated by European scientists at 10-11 million people. Domestic studies within the framework of the agglomeration include all settlements, a significant proportion of the inhabitants of which are connected with the main city of the agglomeration by work trips. Typically, such points are located no further than a 1.5-hour trip from the core of the agglomeration. With this approach, the population of the Moscow agglomeration is estimated at 12.5-14 million people. In the United States, standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSA) are distinguished as agglomerations, which entirely include primary territorial units (counties) that meet certain criteria of connection with the main city, which must have at least 50 thousand inhabitants (continuity of development is also taken into account , and labor relations, and population density).

Ultimately, regardless of the methods of defining the boundaries of urban agglomerations, in developed countries population estimates are currently given specifically for agglomerations, and not for cities within their legal boundaries. The same applies to the largest cities in developing countries. Indeed, singling out separate settlements within an agglomeration "when viewed from the outside" (from outside the agglomeration) does not make sense, since it is a single socio-economic system artificially divided by historically established legal boundaries (borders of individual settlements). Thus, the population of Paris within the legal boundaries of the city is currently about 2 million people. But no one doubts that many formally independent settlements outside the city limits (for example, the district of La Defense skyscrapers) are also Paris. And the total population of the Paris agglomeration ("Greater Paris") is estimated at 11-12 million people. List of the largest urban agglomerations of the world as of the beginning of the XXI century. presented in table. 4.3.

It is noteworthy that at the beginning of the XX century. The largest agglomeration on Earth was London (numbering 4.5 million inhabitants), which today ranks 20th. Accordingly, over a hundred years, the population of London has grown by about 2.5 times. And the first agglomeration with a population of over 10 million people. in the 1940s became New York, which is currently in 7th place. For the 20th century The population of this city has grown by about 10 times. The population of today's leader Tokyo has grown by about 30 times in 100 years. But the population of most of today's largest urban agglomerations has grown 100 times or more over the past 100 years (Mexico City, Seoul, Sao Paulo, etc.). It is precisely such ultra-high urban growth rates in large developing countries (about 5% of annual population growth on average over 100 years) that formed the modern list of the world's largest agglomerations, almost 2/3 of which are located in developing countries.

Table 4.3 Largest urban agglomerations in the world

№	Agglomeration	Population, million people	A country
	Tokyo	31,0	Japan
	mexico city	21,0	Mexico
	Seoul	19,9	Korea
	Sao Paulo	18,5	Brazil
	Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe	17,6	Japan
	Jakarta	17,4	Indonesia
	NY	17,0	USA
	Delhi	16,7	India
	Bombay	16,7	India
	Los Angeles	16,6	USA
	Cairo	15,6	Egypt
	Calcutta	13,8	India
	Manila	13,5	Philippines
	Buenos Aires	12,9	Argentina
	Moscow	12,1	Russia
	Shanghai	11,9	China
	Rhine-Ruhr	11,3	Germany
	Paris	11,3	France
	Rio de Janeiro	11,3	Brazil
	London	11,2	Great Britain
	Tehran	11,0	Iran
	Chicago	10,9	USA
	Karachi	10,3	Pakistan
	Dhaka	10,2	Bangladesh

Over time, suburban settlements within agglomerations begin to develop faster than the central city, including due to the relocation of some residents from the central city to the suburbs. This process is called suburbanization (from the Latin word suburb - suburb). At the same time, residents are "pushed" out of the central cities by the difficult environmental situation, the growth of crime, the high cost of real estate, high taxes and other conditions that are much better in suburban settlements.

A necessary condition for suburbanization is the development of transport to ensure transportation between the place of residence and place of work, since most of the resettlers continue to work in the main city. That is why the first signs of suburbanization appeared in developed countries after the development of suburban rail links in them. But intensive suburbanization began only with the mass motorization of the population, since only a private car provides a sufficiently high degree of freedom in the relative location of the place of residence and place of work.

Initially, the wealthiest segments of the population, the elite of society, move to the suburbs. By doing this, they create for the rest of the population a pattern of behavior that cannot be realized for material reasons. But as the well-being of society grows, more and more masses of the population are involved in resettlement. Intensive suburbanization is associated with the resettlement of the "middle" class, which is numerous in developed countries. Following the resettlement of residents, the movement to the suburbs of industry and other areas of employment begins. The movement of trade and the service sector is directly related to the resettlement of residents and goes almost simultaneously with it. To some extent, they move to the suburbs and managerial functions. Nevertheless, the movement of jobs to the suburbs still occurs to a lesser extent than the resettlement of residents.

Currently, most developed countries have already passed the stage of suburbanization. As a result, the bulk of the urban population in these countries lives in the suburbs. And the crisis of the main cities, which was one of the causes of suburbanization, intensified as a result. The main cities lost a significant part of the tax base and the number of jobs decreased. Accordingly, unemployment increased, the concentration of marginalized strata of the population with low incomes increased, etc. Therefore, in the first decades after the Second World War, most developed countries implemented state programs aimed at deconcentration of the population and economy, spurring suburbanization, then in recent decades, state, and local programs are aimed at, the revitalization of urban centers. Although basically not as places of residence, but as places of concentration of various progressive types of activity.

But urban agglomerations are not the final form of development of the Yurod settlement. In some areas that are especially attractive for urban development, neighboring agglomerations grow and merge with their peripheral parts. Sometimes smaller agglomerations fall into the zone of influence of a larger agglomeration and become second-order agglomerations. The resulting systems of 3-5 agglomerations are called urbanized areas. In Russia, similar areas formed around the Moscow agglomeration, along the Volga, along the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains, in the Kuznetsk coal basin.

In some cases, as a rule, along the most important transport polyhighways, the number of merged agglomerations can be dozens. Such largest forms of urban settlement at the moment are called urbanized zones or megalopolises. Megalopolis is originally a proper name for the first such urban structure, which was described in the 1950s. by the French urbanist J. Gottman in the northeast of the United States, as a result, similar formations were formed in

other regions of the earth. The characteristics of the largest megalopolises of the Earth are presented in Table. 4.4.

Urbanization- this is a historical process of increasing the role of the city in the development of society, which covers changes in the location of production and, above all, in the resettlement of the population, its socio-professional, demographic structure, lifestyle, culture, etc. - a multilateral socio-economic, demographic and geographical process occurring on the basis of historically established forms of social and territorial division of labor. In a narrower, demographic and statistical sense, urbanization is the growth of cities, especially large ones, an increase in the proportion of urban population in a country, region, world (urbanization of the population).

The first cities appeared in the III-I millennium BC. in, Mesopotamia, China, as well as in some areas and adjacent to. In the Greco-Roman world, cities such as Athens, Rome, Carthage played a huge role. With the development of an industrial society, the objective necessity of concentration and integration of various forms and types of material and spiritual activity was the reason for the intensification of the process of urbanization, an increase in the concentration of the population in cities. At the present stage of urbanization in the economically developed ones, the predominance of large-town forms of settlements is noted.

The development of the urbanization process is closely related to the peculiarities of the formation of the urban population and the growth of cities: the urban population itself; inclusion in the city limits or assignment to the administrative subordination of suburban areas (including cities, towns and villages); transformation of rural settlements into urban ones. The actual growth of cities is also due to the formation of more or less wide suburban areas and urbanized areas. The living conditions of the population in these areas are increasingly approaching the conditions of life in large cities, the centers of gravity of these zones.

A comparative analysis of the demographic aspects of the process of urbanization in various countries of the world is usually based on data on the growth of the urbanization of the population - the share of the urban, or urbanized, population. However, in the reports for different countries there is no information given for one date (the amplitude of fluctuations is up to 10 years), the methods for counting the urban population and determining the boundaries of cities are not the same. In the countries of the world, there are three different types by which settlements are classified as urban:

when settlements are subdivided according to a chosen criterion (for example, according to the type of local government, according to the number of inhabitants, according to the proportion of the population employed in);
when the administrative center of a rural area is classified as a city, and the rest of it as a village;
when clusters of a population of a certain size belong to cities, regardless of their administrative affiliation.

Since the criteria for identifying urban settlements vary considerably in individual countries, in order to obtain comparable data, the population of all settlements that have reached a certain population size is often included in the urban population. The values of 2, 5, 10, and 20 thousand inhabitants are proposed as the world statistical qualification of the population of a city (almost not connected with its definition in essence). Thus, the population of settlements with a population of at least 2,000 is often considered urbanized. But such a qualification, while suitable for certain countries, is still too low for the world standard. However, the actual scale of urbanization is so complex that it is preferable to use several criteria as steps. When using national criteria for the allocation of urban settlements, the dynamics of urbanization of the population is as follows. In 1800, the share of the urban population in the entire population of the globe was about 3%, in 1860 - 6.4%, in 1900 - 19.6%, by 1990 it increased to 43% (14 times).

The outpacing growth of the urban and non-agricultural population compared to the rural and agricultural population is the most characteristic feature of modern urbanization. In three parts of the world - and, America, Europe, urban residents predominate, at the same time, the African population, and due to its large numbers, creates a preponderance of the village over the city on average in the world. The countries of Asia and Africa have the largest reserves of urban population growth, and it is here that its most rapid growth has recently taken place.

The highest percentage of the urban population is economically . In 1990, the urban population was (in%): in - 74.3; c — 78.3; — 75; — 60; - 77.5; - 77.4; — 90; China - 26.2; - 25.7. When the proportion of the urban population exceeds 70%, the rate of its growth, as a rule, slows down and gradually (when approaching 80%) stops.

Urbanization is characterized by the concentration of the population in large and super-large cities. It is the growth of large cities (100 thousand people), the new forms of settlement associated with it, and the spread of the urban way of life that most clearly reflect the process of urbanization of the population. The share of large cities in the total population of the world has increased over more than 100 years (from 1860 to 1980) from 1.7 to 20%. No less remarkable is the development of the largest "millionaire" cities. If in 1800 there was only one city with a population of more than 1 million, then in 1990 there were over 300 such cities.

The modern type of urbanization in economically developed countries is no longer so much a rapid rate of growth in the share of the urban population, but rather an especially intensive development of suburbanization processes and the formation on this basis of new spatial forms of urban settlement - megacities. Under these conditions, the processes of territorial deconcentration of the population were clearly manifested. This refers not only to the movement of the population from large cities to their suburban areas - a process that was widely developed back in the 50s. XX century, but also the predominant growth of cities in peripheral areas compared to highly urbanized ones. In the 70s. in the United States, for the first time, urban population growth rates were below the national average. Data for France confirm a general population shift from urban areas to small and medium-sized cities as a result of the change in direction. In , there was a decline in the population in the largest cities, and from the city centers the flows of migrants were directed mainly to their suburban areas. In many large urban agglomerations, the population has stopped increasing or even started to decline (often due to the decrease in the population of the city centers).

In the world, as already noted, the “population explosion” was accompanied by an “urban explosion”. With relatively low urbanization rates, many of these countries have relatively high rates of urbanization. The disproportionate growth of the capitals of a number of Asian and African states is associated with a special type of urbanization, which is distinguished by the mass attraction of peasants to large cities. The influx of the rural population into the cities, as a rule, far outstrips the growth in labor demand. In developing countries, multi-million urban agglomerations are being formed (for example, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Calcutta, etc.). On the one hand, the process of urbanization contributes to the progress of these countries, raises the role of cities, on the other hand, it exacerbates the socio-economic problems generated by economic backwardness and associated with excessive "demographic" for large cities.

The impact of urbanization on demographic processes is manifested, to a large extent, depending on the differentiation of the urban environment, primarily on the differences in cities in size and economic profile (functional type). As the process of urbanization develops, the urban population decreases in comparison with the rural population, and in the future there is a drop in the birth rate in rural areas. Some developing countries (such as Egypt) have higher urban birth rates due to a range of socioeconomic, demographic and religious factors, notably the more balanced sex ratios in cities. In almost all countries, the birth rate of urban residents who have recently moved from rural areas is higher than that of long-term residents of cities (if the adaptation of rural residents to cities is not fraught with great difficulties).

As urbanization develops, the role of migration in the growth of the urban population is gradually decreasing. The intensity of the territorial mobility of the population as a whole is growing, especially the intensity of pendulum movements. The main role in the formation of the urban population of the Russian Federation for many years was played by migration from rural areas to cities and the transformation of villages into urban settlements. However, over time, the importance of natural increase in the formation of the population of cities increases. In conditions when the rate of natural growth is declining, the rate of growth of the urban population is also slowing down. In the early 90s. 20th century Population growth in many of Russia's largest cities has halted.

The profound impact of modern urbanization on many aspects of social life leads to the emergence of new theories that try to explain the role of urbanization in the development of society. This is, first of all, the socio-evolutionary theory of the "urban revolution", according to which, in the course of urbanization, its contradictions are gradually eliminated, and significant antagonisms between the city and the countryside are removed. The urban revolution must eventually lead to a "post-urban society". According to M. Weber, the theorist of urbanization, it leads to the creation of a “post-urban society” - a “society outside the cities” - by including most of the population in the industry of information production, the development of universal spatial mobility.