Factors Causing Urbanisation
Geography: AQA GCSE, topic 4.1.2
Factors Causing Urbanisation
The 2 main causes of urbanisation are rural-urban migration and natural increase. High rates of urbanisation are leading to the creation of megacities (cities with more than 10m inhabitants). Tokyo is the world’s most inhabited city with a population of 38 million people.
Rural-urban migration - push factors
- Push factors force people to leave a place. Some examples are:
- People's homes and jobs destroyed by a natural disaster.
- Automation (things like combine harvesters) cause people to lose their jobs in rural agriculture.
- Land becomes uninhabitable because of processes like desertification.
- Government mandate (Singapore under Lee Kuan-Yew forced people to move from farms into apartments in cities).
- Civil wars, like the Syrian Civil War, can force people to leave a place.
Rural-urban migration - pull factors
- Pull factors attract people to a place. Some examples are:
- Like in the UK in the Industrial Revolution, there may be more jobs and higher paid jobs in cities.
- Cities usually have more doctors, nurses, teachers, and other wellbeing infrastructure.
- If the trend is that more people are moving to cities, people may just move to live closer to their family and friends.
- Cities usually have more cinemas, shops and fun things to do. Flight Club Darts and Junkyard Mini Golf in the UK open sites in major cities, but not in rural areas.
Natural increase
- Natural increase happens when the number of people dying is smaller than the number of people being born.
- People living in cities usually have a lower average age than people living in rural areas, so birth rates are usually higher in cities.
Test yourself on Factors Causing Urbanisation
What are the pull factors affecting rural-urban migration?
Which are push factors affecting rural-urban migration?
A rural village experiences significant job losses when its main employer, a manufacturing plant, closes down. Many residents decide to move to nearby cities.