Urbanisation
Topic: Measuring Development: Income, HDI and Sustainability · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 7 "Environment and Sustainable Development"; Class 11, Ch 8 "Comparative Development Experiences of India and its Neighbours"; Class 11, Ch 4 "Presentation of Data"
Meaning
Urbanisation is the rise in the share of a country's people who live in towns and cities. It usually goes with development, as people move from farming to industry and services. If it is unplanned, it brings pollution, traffic congestion and slums.
Example
India was 31.1% urban in Census 2011. By 2021–23 about 36% of Indians lived in urban areas. China was 65% urban and Pakistan 38%. So China is roughly two-thirds urban, while India is only about one-third.
Don't confuse with
- Population density: this is people per km² of the whole country. A country can be very dense, like India, and still have a low share of people in cities.
- Urban population growth: this is the rise in the number of city dwellers. Urbanisation is the rise in their share of the total population.
Related concepts
- Population growth rate
- Population density
- Sex ratio
- Son preference
- Total fertility rate
- Replacement level fertility
- Dependency ratio
- Demographic window of opportunity
- Ageing population
- Population pyramid