Today, more than half of the world's population lives in cities.
According to forecasts, by 2030 the proportion of urban residents will reach 60%.
Read about it in the material.

Before the Industrial Revolution, the farming sector was not productive enough to support a large urban economy. And although we know the history of Rome, Istanbul, London and Kyiv and many other ancient cities, the proportion of the urban population was less than 10% of the world's population. The vast majority of people before the onset of the industrial revolution were employed in small peasant farms.

The Industrial Revolution and the enormous achievements of agricultural production were made possible by the advances of science. High yield seed varieties have given us a green revolution. Chemical fertilizers have increased agricultural productivity. Machines, tractors, combines allowed the farmer to cultivate a vast territory alone, while earlier peasants with hoes cultivated small patches of land. Now less and less human resources are needed to feed a family, a region, a country. Most of our economic activity is concentrated in industry, construction and services. And as the industrial part of the economy has grown, so has the level of urbanization.

Level of urbanization and income per person

The relationship between the number of benefits per person and the level of urbanization of the country is interesting - the lower the per capita income, the lower this level.
By clicking on the picture, marking the countries of interest on the right and clicking on PLAY at the bottom left, you can see how the level of urbanization and income has changed over the past 50 years

Source: gapminder.org

Percentage of countries' urbanized population, 1950–2050

Source: World Urbanization Prospects, 2014

The information age has made people more aware. This makes it easier for people to organize to overthrow dictatorships. Which, in turn, often allows governments to impose tougher rules and crack down on their own citizens. The result is instability and unsustainability in cities, says UN Secretary General's Adviser on Sustainable Development Jeffrey Sachs.

The theme of sustainable development of cities that are safe, provided with water, food, successfully managing waste, able to withstand all sorts of disasters, has become relevant. Cities are places of rapid population growth and glaring inequality. An example of neighboring wealth and poverty is Rio's favelas.

Favelas. Slums of Rio de Janeiro. False urbanization

Ratio of urban to rural population worldwide

Source: World Urbanization Prospects The 2014 Revision

Note: You can see when similar curves intersect for a particular country on the page of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs

By 2030, about 60% of the world's population will live in cities. The UN Population Division estimates that by 2050, 67% of the world's population will live in urban areas. In other words, all the expected population growth - from 7.3 billion to 8, 9 and 10 billion - will be associated with an increase in the urban population and a stable or even slightly declining rural population.

Poor countries tend to grow faster than rich countries, and they also urbanize at a faster rate. Now the long history of rural societies in Asia and Africa has become the history of two dynamically urbanizing regions of the world.

Levels of urbanization by region (1950, 2011, 2050)

Source: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. 2012. "World Urbanization Prospects: The 2011 Revision."

Let's look at the share of world population in different regions. In 1950, 38% of the world's urban population lived in Europe. There were many imperial powers here, dominating the rest of the mostly agricultural world. Together with North America, these two regions accounted for 53% of the world's urban population. Let's turn to the forecast for 2050. Significant urbanization awaits Asia and Africa. Only 9% of the world's urban population will live in European cities, the share of North America will be 6%. The era in which European and North American cities were dominant is coming to an end, according to Jeffrey Sacks. This is also confirmed by the dynamics of the largest cities in the world. If you look at what urban agglomerations (these are not necessarily some kind of unified legal entities, these are concentrated areas that may include many political jurisdictions) the population will become 10 million or more.

Urban agglomerations will grow

The number of megacities is growing sharply, and, as a rule, cities with a population of more than 10 million grow precisely in developing countries. Back in 1950, there were only two mega-cities: Tokyo and New York. In 1990, there were 10 mega-cities:

• Tokyo
• mexico city
• San Paolo
• Mumbai
• Osaka
• New York
• Buenos Aires
• Calcutta
• Los Angeles

four of them (Tokyo, New York, Osaka and Los Angeles) are in high-income countries.

Megacities in 1990

The process of urbanization of the world's population is underway.

Urbanization- this is a socio-economic process, expressed in the growth of urban settlements, the concentration of the population in them, especially in large cities, in the spread of the urban lifestyle to the entire network of settlements.

Hyperurbanization- these are zones of uncontrolled development of urban settlements and overload of the natural landscape (the ecological balance is disturbed).

False urbanization- quite often used to characterize the situation in developing countries. In this case, urbanization is associated not so much with the development of urban functions, but with the “pushing out” of the population from rural areas as a result of relative agrarian overpopulation.

Hyperurbanization is typical for developed countries, false urbanization - for developing countries.

Both of these problems are characteristic of Russia (false urbanization is to a lesser extent and in a slightly different form; in Russia it is due to the inability of cities to provide the incoming population with the necessary social infrastructure).

Benefits of urbanization

The process of urbanization contributes to an increase in labor productivity, allows solving many social problems of society.

Negative aspects of urbanization

In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the urbanization of the population. Urbanization is accompanied by the growth of large million-plus cities, environmental pollution near industrial centers, and deterioration of living conditions in the regions.

The technosphere was created for:

• Improve comfort
• Providing protection from natural negative influences

The process of urbanization and its features

The city did not immediately become the dominant form of settlement. For many centuries, urban forms of life were the exception rather than the rule, due to the dominance of such forms of production, which were based on subsistence farming and individual labor. So, in the era of classical slavery, the city was closely connected with landed property, with agricultural labor. In the feudal era, urban life still bore in itself the features of its antipode - agriculture, so urban settlements were scattered over a vast area and weakly interconnected. The predominance of the village as a form of settlement in this era was ultimately due to the weak level of development of the productive forces, which did not allow a person to break away from the earth in economic terms.

Relations between town and countryside begin to change under the influence of the development of productive forces. The objective basis of these processes was the transformation of urban production on the basis of a manufactory, and then a factory. Thanks to expanding urban production, the relative size of the urban population increased quite rapidly. The Industrial Revolution in Europe at the end of the 18th century - the first half of the 19th century. fundamentally changed the face of cities. Factory towns are becoming the most typical form of urban settlement. It was then that the road was opened to the rapid growth of the "settlement" environment, artificially created by man in the course of his production life. These shifts in production brought about a new historical phase in the development of settlement, characterized by the triumph of urbanization, which means an increase in the proportion of the country's population living in cities and associated mainly with industrialization. Especially high rates of urbanization were observed in the 19th century. through migration from rural areas.

In the modern world, an intensive process of formation of agglomerations, conurbations, megacities, urbanized regions continues.

Agglomeration- the accumulation of settlements, united into one whole by intensive economic, labor and socio-cultural ties. It is formed around large cities, as well as in densely populated industrial areas. in Russia at the beginning of the 21st century. there were about 140 large-scale agglomerations. They are home to 2/3 of the country's population, 2/3 of the industrial and 90% of Russia's scientific potential are concentrated.

Conurbation includes several coalescing or closely developing agglomerations (usually 3-5) with highly developed major cities. In Japan, 13 conurbations have been identified, including Tokyo, consisting of 7 agglomerations (27.6 million people), Nagoya - from 5 agglomerations (7.3 million people), Osaka, etc. The term "standard consolidated area" introduced in the USA in 1963 is similar.

Megalopolis- a system of settlements hierarchical in complexity and scale, consisting of a large number of conurbations and agglomerations. Megalopolises appeared in the middle of the 20th century. In UN terminology, a megalopolis is an entity with a population of at least 5 million inhabitants. At the same time, 2/3 of the territory of a megalopolis may not be built up. Thus, the Tokaido megalopolis consists of the Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka conurbations with a length of about 800 km along the coast. Megalopolises include interstate entities, such as the Great Lakes megalopolis (USA-Canada) or the Donetsk-Rostov system of agglomerations (Russia-Ukraine). In Russia, the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod region of settlement can be called a megalopolis; the Ural megalopolis is born.

Urbanized region, which is formed by a grid of megalopolises, is considered to be a more complex, large-scale and territorially extensive settlement system. Among the emerging urbanized regions include London-Paris-Ruhr, the Atlantic coast of North America, etc.

The basis for the allocation of such systems are cities with a population of over 100 thousand people or more. A special place among them is occupied by “millionaire” cities. In 1900 there were only 10 of them, and now there are more than 400. It is cities with a million inhabitants that develop into agglomerations and contribute to the creation of more complex settlement and urban planning systems - conurbations, megalopolises and super-large formations - urbanized regions.

At present, urbanization is due to the scientific and technological revolution, changes in the structure of productive forces and the nature of labor, deepening links between activities, as well as information links.

Common features of urbanization in the world are:

• the preservation of interclass social structures and population groups, the division of labor, which fixes the population at the place of residence;
• intensification of socio-spatial ties that determine the formation of complex settlement systems and their structures;
• integration of the countryside (as the settlement sphere of the village) with the urban area and the narrowing of the functions of the village as a socio-economic subsystem;
• a high concentration of activities such as science, culture, information, management, and an increase in their role in the country's economy;
• increased regional polarization of economic urban planning and, as a result, social development within countries.

Features of urbanization in developed countries are as follows:

• slowdown in growth rates and stabilization of the share of the urban population in the total population of the country. Slowdown is observed when the proportion of the urban population exceeds 75%, and stabilization - 80%. This level of urbanization is noted in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and;
• stabilization and influx of population in certain regions of rural areas;
• cessation of the demographic growth of metropolitan agglomerations concentrating population, capital, socio-cultural and managerial functions. Moreover, in recent years, in the metropolitan agglomerations of the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Germany and Japan, there has been a process of deconcentration of production and population, which manifests itself in the outflow of the population from the cores of agglomerations to their outer zones and even beyond the agglomerations;
• change in the ethnic composition of cities due to the ongoing mythology from developing countries. The high birth rate in migrant families significantly affects the decrease in the proportion of the "titular" population of cities;
• placement of new jobs in the outer zones of the agglomeration and even beyond.

Modern urbanization has led to a deepening of socio-territorial differences. A kind of payment for the concentration and economic efficiency of production in the conditions of urbanization was the territorial and social polarization constantly reproduced in the most developed countries between backward and advanced regions, between the central regions of cities and suburbs; the emergence of unfavorable environmental conditions and, as a result, the deterioration of the health of the urban population, especially the poor.

suburbanization(the rapid growth of the suburban area around large cities), the first signs of which appeared before the Second World War, affected primarily the wealthy and was a form of their flight from the social diseases of the big city.

Urbanization in Russia

in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. 20% of the country's urban population was concentrated in the central area, while in Siberia and the Far East the urban population did not exceed 3% with the cities of 100,000 inhabitants Novosibirsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok; the scientific base of the vast region was Tomsk University. Settlement in rural areas, where 82% of the country's population lived, was characterized by extreme fragmentation, overpopulation of some areas and forced military-agricultural colonization of others (mainly national outskirts). In the North, in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, the population led a nomadic lifestyle. In rural settlements, there was a complete lack of social and cultural services, well-maintained roads. As a result, there was a huge social and spatial distance between the big cities, which concentrated almost the entire potential of culture, and the countryside. In 1920, the number of literate people was 44% of the country's population, including 32% of women, among the rural population - respectively 37 and 25%.

By the beginning of 1926, the settlement base of the country consisted of 1925 urban settlements, in which 26 million people lived, or 18% of the country's population, and about 860 thousand rural settlements. The frame of centers of settlement and cultural development was represented by only 30 cities, of which Moscow and Leningrad were millionaires.

The process of urbanization in the USSR was associated with a rapid concentration of production in large cities, the creation of numerous new cities in areas of new development and, accordingly, with the movement of huge masses of the population from village to city and its high concentration in large and largest urban settlements.

This stage of urbanization was characterized by the following negative features, due to the fact that the settlement and organization of society took place mainly on the basis of sectoral economic criteria: extensive growth of large cities, insufficient development of small and medium-sized cities; inattention and underestimation of the role of rural settlements as a social environment; slow overcoming of socio-territorial differences.

In modern Russia, the process of urbanization is also associated with serious contradictions. The trend towards property polarization of the population within urban communities leads to the segregation of the poor population, pushing it to the “sideline” of urban life. The economic crisis and political instability stimulate unemployment and internal migration, as a result of which, due to the excessive influx of population, many cities have significantly more people than they are able to "digest". Population growth in cities, far outstripping the demand for labor, is accompanied not only by absolute, but sometimes by relative expansion of those strata that do not participate in modern production. These processes lead to an increase in urban unemployment and the development in the cities of an unorganized sector of the economy engaged in small-scale production and services. In addition, the growth of the criminal sector, which includes both the "shadow" economy and organized crime, is noticeable.

Be that as it may, urban life and urban culture have become an organic environment of social habitat. At the beginning of the XXI century. the majority of Russians are native city dwellers. They will set the tone in the development of society, and the way the social management systems are formed now, how the social environment changes, the life of new generations will depend.

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 understanding, urbanization is the growth of cities, especially large ones, an increase in the proportion of the 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, there is a predominance of large-town forms of settlements.

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 20,000 inhabitants are proposed as the world statistical qualification of the population of a city (almost not related to 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.

Urbanization is a process that characterizes the social and economic aspects of the development of the state and the change in the structure of its population. It manifests itself in the growth of the number of cities, the increase in the proportion of the urban population, the active spread of the urban style.

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The concept of urbanization in various disciplines (in geography, in history, social science)

Depending on the discipline, the concept of urbanization and urbanized cities/countries may differ somewhat. For example, the above definition is most often included in the Life Safety course.

The meaning of the word urbanization does not change in science, however, if we try to define the concepts associated with this term in history or social science, then urbanization is a more global process of transition from the traditional (agrarian) type of society to a more developed industrial (industrial) and further post-industrial (information) type. The transition from the industrial to the information type of society is especially characteristic of the current stage of urbanization.

The very word "urbanization" comes from the Latin "urbs" (city) and appeared in the 19th century, although ancient Greek philosophers began to study the trends and features of the joint life of people.

Causes

The main reasons for urbanization are the increase and improvement of production and recreation, their mutual penetration into each other, the development of international relations and the intensification of the agricultural sector. In simple words, in order to understand the reasons why the process of urbanization begins, you need to answer the question - why do people from villages and villages move to cities? The main responses received may be as follows:

• improving lifestyle;
• developed education system;
• personal self-realization;
• a higher level of service delivery;
  other.

All these factors of urbanization are social aspects.

Also among the significant reasons is the growth of commercial and trade relations, the globalization of the industrial sphere, labor migration, etc.

Types, forms, types of urbanization

Considering the types of urbanization, forms and types of urbanization, we should dwell on some basic concepts.

Geo-urbanization is the process of transforming natural landscapes into artificial landscapes due to human intervention. These processes are studied within the framework of a separate science of geourban studies.

The second concept to be considered is suburbanization. Suburbanization is a process of "secondary" urbanization and expansion of agglomerations, which is characterized by dynamic development in recent years, especially in the context of growing computerization of all sectors of human life. Urbanization and suburbanization are directly related, since only when a critical concentration of urban residents is reached, the process of outflow to nearby territories begins.

Before considering the next concept, it should be noted that recently a process has begun that is the reverse of urbanization, which is called ruralization. It is also caused by an increase in the level of computerization of the population, which leads to an improvement in living conditions in rural areas and the improvement of the population.

Based on such a criterion as the rate of urbanization of the population, hyperurbanization should be distinguished, which leads to the appearance of a false or, as it is also called, a slum variety. This type of urbanization is characterized by rapid population growth without sufficient jobs, which in turn leads to rising unemployment.

Process / stages, history of urbanization, stages

The concept of urbanization appeared in the ancient world. Palestine, Mesopotamia and Egypt were the first states that were formed from cities. The features of urbanization of those times were due to the degree of development of society, the existing knowledge of geography, agriculture and other natural sciences. Specific examples of how urbanization took place in antiquity are visible in the history of Athens, Rome, Constantinople and other cities. In order to understand what are the reasons for the growth in the number of urban residents and when the first prerequisites for the migration of residents to the city arose, one should briefly consider history.

The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful states in world history.

In the 4th-5th century, during the decline of the Roman Empire, signs and manifestations of the opposite process are noticeable - urbanized territories are shrinking, there is an outflow of artisans to agriculture, which is called deurbanization (or ruralization).

In the Middle Ages, during the period of feudalism, the importance of craft and trade centers increased significantly, which means that the urbanization of cities resumed. However, with the establishment of absolute monarchy in a large part of Western Europe, the rights and privileges of cities were severely limited, and the urbanized settlement became little different from others.

Urbanization on a global scale can be represented as several stages, each of which is characterized by certain features and a time period.

There are the following stages of urbanization:

1. local;
2. planetary;
3. global.

The first stage lasted about 150 years from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century, and was territorially concentrated in the countries of North America and Western Europe. So, for example, in England in the 19th century, 50% of citizens lived in the city, and already at the beginning of the 20th century - 75%. This is several times more than in the previous, 18th century. Great Britain due to the possession of huge territorial colonies at that time was the most urbanized country.

Scientists refer to the second stage as a period of 50 years (1900-1950), which significantly influenced the degree of movement of people to cities throughout the globe. At this time, active industrial development and improvement of production took place, imperialism was established, and the processes of migration of capital and labor deepened. Together, the urban population has increased by half a billion people in 50 years, indicating that this is one of the most active periods in the development of society, when the urbanization rate reached a significant level.

The third stage, which began after 1950, continues to this day. Its main prerequisites were the scientific and technological revolution, which significantly increased the level of industrial development, and the growing service sector. At present, the characteristic of urbanization is one of the fundamental factors of world globalization.

Tokyo urban landscape

The science of urban studies studies in detail the process of urbanization, stages of urbanization, types of urbanization, new meanings of the word "urbanization" and, in particular, the path of urbanization of various states.

In the theory of urbanization, several lines of research are distinguished, according to which urbanization is in fact not a linear process. In the 60s, based on the study of the dynamics of urbanization in the United States and Western Europe, the stages of urbanization according to Gibbs were identified. According to this concept, the 3rd and 4th stages are the most dynamic, characterized by the maximum growth in the proportion of the urban population. At the fifth stage, which already corresponds to the post-industrial type of society, the growth of cities stops and the proportion of the urban population may even decrease due to the slowdown in the influx of new citizens.

Examples of the most urbanized countries, an example of the cities of Moscow and Vladimir

Today, urban trends are becoming catastrophic in terms of the concentration of people living in cities. When the level of city dwellers reaches 70-75% of the total population, the urbanization coefficient drops quite sharply due to changes in the structure of employment - the majority of able-bodied citizens are looking for work in the non-productive and less paid service sector. This is average data. However, now there are examples of their excess. The highly urbanized countries, where this figure is more than 80%, include the USA, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Canada, Israel and others.

Considering the path of urbanization in Russia or any other country, one can single out the specific features of this process that affect the history of the state as a whole and its place in the world economy.

Until the 1990s, the USSR was a classically urbanized country with positive dynamics - the urban population increased, while the rural population decreased. However, over the next 20 years, the number of cities in the Russian Federation decreased by 10%, and urban residents became 3.5% less, which corresponds to the process of suburbanization. The presence of suburbanization tendencies in Russia is especially noticeable in the example of such cities as St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Typical morning in Moscow

To assess the dynamics of the inflow/outflow of citizens, data on the size and structure of the population of two cities, Moscow and Vladimir, are provided.

Moscow		Vladimir
Year	population	Year	population
2010	11 503 501	2010	345 373
2011	11 776 764	2011	346 177
2012	11 856 578	2012	345 907
2013	11 979 529	2013	347 930
2014	12 108 257	2014	350 087
2015	12 197 596	2015	352 681
2016	12 330 126	2016	354 827
2017	12 380 664	2017	356 168

Characteristic features, features of the process of urbanization

Main signs:

1. population reproduction increases;
2. the ratio of urban and rural population is changing in favor of an increase in urban residents;
3. urban infrastructure development;
4. complication of city functions;
5. the appearance of structuredness in settlement (megacities and urban agglomeration).

Despite the fact that the resettlement of residents from villages to cities is a global process, in each individual state it can take place in different ways - taking into account national characteristics.

Advantages and disadvantages of urbanization in ecological context

The advantages of urbanization include the opportunity for citizens to receive better education and medical care, improve their quality of life. It has a beneficial effect on the growth of labor productivity, the possibility of solving some social problems.

Garbage landfill in Moscow

However, the negative effects of rapid urban overpopulation are also present. These include the ever-increasing levels of atmospheric air pollution, water pollution, the accumulation of household waste, the formation of landfills, etc. All this together negatively affects the general state of the environment. In order to minimize the negative consequences of the growth of cities, the state carries out measures of a deterrent nature for the process of urbanization.

Conclusion

Urbanization in the narrow sense refers to an increase in the proportion of the urban population due to the migration of able-bodied citizens from agricultural regions to cities. Urbanization is a natural process that requires state control. The science of urban studies is engaged in a detailed study of its processes, concepts, stages and patterns.

The twenty-first century is the century of urbanization, when there is a rapid change not only of the person himself, but also a change in the system of values, norms of behavior, and intelligence. This phenomenon covers the social and demographic structure of the population, its way of life, culture. It is not difficult to understand what urbanization is, it is important to know what consequences it brings.

Urbanization - what is it?

Urbanization is the increase in urban settlements and the spread of an urban lifestyle to the entire part of the settlements. Urbanization is a multilateral process based on the historically established forms of social and territorial division of labor. Urbanization means the growth of big cities, increasing the urban population in the country. This concentration is closely related to false urbanization.

In different countries, the increase in settlements takes place with different dynamics, so all countries of the world are conventionally divided into three groups:

• high level of urbanization - 73%;
• medium - more than 32%;
• low - less than 32%.

According to this division, Canada is classified in the fourth ten in terms of urbanization, here its level is more than 80%. In Russia, the level is 73%, although the increase in settlements is not always associated with positive aspects. In our country, this level arose due to significant contradictions:

• inability of host cities to adequately address the issue of migration;
• difficult economic situation;
• instability in the political sphere;
• inequalities in the development of regions, when residents from villages tend to megacities.

False urbanization

False urbanization is rapid population growth without sufficient job growth, resulting in crowds of unemployed people, and lack of housing leading to unsettled, unsanitary urban outskirts. This phenomenon often affects the countries of Africa and Latin America, where, along with a high concentration of the population, the standard of living is everywhere low. The increased social tension increases the growth of crime.

Causes of urbanization

Global urbanization has led to the fact that the rural population from nearby villages and small towns is increasingly turning to large cities for domestic or cultural issues. There are the following reasons for urbanization at the present time:

1. Development of industrial production in large cities.
2. An excess of labor force.
3. More favorable living conditions in big cities compared to rural ones.
4. Formation of wide suburban areas.

Pros and cons of urbanization

The quality of urban life is directly related to how reasonable the level of increase in settlements is, the positive and negative aspects of urbanization. If this level rises sharply, the quality of urban life drops significantly, jobs disappear in the city. Therefore, an important place here is occupied by the infrastructure of the city and the level of trade, the level of income of urban residents, their security. Also, another factor in urban life is environmental safety, its level.

To understand what urbanization is, it is necessary to look at its positive and negative sides. For example, Russia is currently undergoing a difficult transition period, when irreversible processes are taking place in the countryside. Only with the help of a certain state policy, a balanced settlement of people in cities, it is possible to preserve national traditions and culture.

Pros of urbanization

Most of the population lives in large cities and the reason for this was the positive aspects of urbanization:

• Increasing labor productivity;
• Creation of places for scientific research and recreation;
• Qualified medical care;
• Sanitary and hygienic conditions.

Cons of urbanization

To date, settlements have begun to grow dramatically. This process is accompanied by the growth of large cities, environmental pollution, and deterioration of living conditions in the regions. The atmosphere of large cities contains a higher concentration of toxic substances compared to rural areas. All this caused the negative aspects of urbanization and led to:

• imbalance in the distribution of the population in the territory;
• absorption by large cities of the most fertile and productive parts of the planet;
• environmental violation;
• noise pollution;
• transport problems;
• building compaction;
• a decrease in the birth rate;
• the rise in unemployment.

Urbanization and its consequences

Due to the fact that most of the rural residents moved to big cities, agriculture ceased to satisfy all the needs of the population. And in order to increase the productivity of soil production began the use of artificial fertilizers. Such an irrational approach led to the fact that the soil was oversaturated with heavy metal compounds. In the twentieth century, the population lost stability in the process of growth. The impact of urbanization has led to large-scale development of energy, industry and agriculture.

Environmental impacts of urbanization

Urbanization is considered the main factor in environmental pollution, residents of big cities call them smogopolises, they pollute the atmosphere by 75%. Scientists have studied the chemical impact of urbanization on nature and found that the plume of polluting effects from large cities can be traced at a distance of fifty kilometers. The lack of necessary funds is a serious obstacle to improving the urban environment, the transition to low-waste technologies, the construction of processing plants.

The car is the biggest source of air pollution. The main harm comes from carbon monoxide, in addition to this, people feel the negative impact of carbohydrates, nitrogen oxides, photochemical oxidants. An urbanized person is daily exposed to oxygen deficiency, irritation of the mucous membranes, deep respiratory tract, resulting in pulmonary edema, colds, bronchitis, lung cancer, coronary disease, congenital malformations.

Impact of urbanization on the biosphere

The growth of urban settlements has a negative impact on the biosphere, from year to year this impact is increasing. Exhaust gases from vehicles, emissions from industrial enterprises, heat and power plants are all consequences of urbanization, due to which nitrogen dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, ozone, saturated hydrocarbons, benzapyrene, and dust enter the atmosphere. In the major cities of the world, they have already stopped paying attention to smog. Not many people fully understand what urbanization is and what danger it poses. If city streets were planted with greenery, the negative impact on the biosphere would decrease.

As technospherization grows, the natural foundations of the biosphere, which is responsible for the reproduction and spread of life on Earth, are removed. At the same time, as humanity gradually moves to technogenesis, the biospheric biological substance is significantly transformed, which negatively affects the organisms formed from it. Artificially created technosphere-biological components can evolve independently and cannot be eliminated from the natural environment.

Impact of urbanization on public health

By creating an urban system, people create an artificial environment around them that increases the comfort of life. But it takes people away from the natural environment and disrupts natural ecosystems. The negative impact of urbanization on human health is manifested by the fact that physical activity decreases, nutrition becomes irrational, low-quality products lead to obesity and diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases develop. The urban environment negatively affects the physical and psychosomatic health of people.

Most urbanized countries

In ancient times, the most urbanized city was Jericho, where approximately two thousand people lived nine thousand years ago. Today, this number can be attributed to a large village or a small town. If we reduce the number of people living in the ten most populated cities of the planet to one whole, then the sum will be almost two hundred and sixty million people, which is 4% of the total population of the planet.